Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl

19 reviews

kalira's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Blood, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Murder, Grief, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Cursing, and Violence

lunep's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

It was gripping but the characters were flat, I didn't care for any of them, the whole magic thing came out of nowhere and felt weird (and hopefully it gets explained on the second book because it wasn't on this one), and the representation was done very poorly: Ella's "OCD" is nothing like real OCD, Rory, Nani and Yuki's sexualities felt very stereotypical, and Yuki being so cold and emotionless is a harmful aroace stereotype, far from the truth (even tho it can be explained by the fact that she was been brought up to be perfect, perfect can still show emotions), and while I don't think the author was trying to say trans people are beasts, making the only trans character The Beast/Adam from Beauty and the Beast was still a poor choice (because we see that the characters and their stories from the book aren't modern versions of their fairy-tale counterparts that follow exactly the same paths, like Micaeli, I think what the author wanted to do was make Svenja's transition represent Adam going back to his real form after being freed from the witch's curse, without being literal to the story and making it all "oh I found love and that's what made me strong enough to be my true self"). I'm debating between reading the second one (partly because I'm a scaredy cat and this made me sleep with my lights on lmao) and just finding the most spoilery review possible to find out what happens 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Chronic illness, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Death of parent, Abandonment, Transphobia, Vomit, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Deadnaming, and Mental illness

meaghancook's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I really really wanted to love this one. There were just too many characters for me to keep straight, but they weren’t fully fleshed out as individuals. Considering they’re supposed to be direct parallels to fairy tale characters, it took me far too long to figure out who they were. And that ending was so rushed and outta nowhere. I may give the second one a shot but probably not any time soon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Rape

jekisah's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There were some typos but overall it is a great story! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Racism, Death of parent, Suicide, and Mental illness

fe_aye's review

adventurous dark mysterious relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This book was an interesting twist on classical fairy tales and folk stories, fighting fate and finding the truth all the while dealing with the challenges of growing up. An enjoyable read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

kalihell_kalihell's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Chronic illness

Minor: Death of parent

scrubsandbooks's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The premise absolutely drew me in. These characters are basically stand-ins for popular fairytales and find themselves meeting the fates of their stories in some serious dark ways and the main characters have to figure out what is going on, all in the setting of a boarding school. And there are a slew of sapphic storylines. This whole thing read like my own catnip!

Why the rating is so low then? Well for starters, it was possibly the most stereotypical and offensive depiction of "severe OCD" in the main character. The trans character is a stand-in for the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. The ace-aro character is the Asian character who is also dealing with pressures of being perfect academically and personally, and comes off as cold and heartless many times. There was so much potential for this story, but the terrible depictions of representation overshadowed a lot of it. Read at your own risk, I guess. I did end up getting the sequel from Netgalley before I had finished the first book so I will likely read it and see how it fares in comparison to this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Transphobia, Ableism, and Chronic illness

yvonne_cl's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, and Murder

Minor: Abandonment, Acephobia/Arophobia, Blood, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Death of parent

lorelei05's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Minor: Chronic illness

ammie116's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Death, Gore, Chronic illness, and Murder