Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Her Majesty's Royal Coven

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

24 reviews

shae_purcell's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I didn't like this book as much as I thought I might. I enjoyed the multi-POV chapters and the diverse representation. I liked a lot of the characters and relationships. I don't know what it is. It fell a little flat for me, like the characters could have been fleshed out more maybe.

A word of warning: Don't go into this expecting a tidy ending. It ends on a huge cliffhanger. I was ready to start the second book until I was halfway through that last chapter. Now I'm really irritated and thinking about taking a break. I'm sure as an author you want readers to be so excited for the next book that they'll run out and pick up a copy immediately. This ending didn't make me excited for the next book. It makes me dread reading it, even though I still kind of want to hang out with the characters a bit more. I may pick it up eventually but I'll feel sour about it.

Content Warnings

batbaby's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

The beginning of the book felt like an introduction of too many characters too quickly that I didn’t know who was who. But then characters started to grow on me. I’m not sure what the intended age demographic is it is written like a ya but the main characters are very much millennial + three 15/16 year olds. I know it is intended to be an allegory for transphobic policies and terms in the uk but the misgendering of a character both intentional and through adjustment to their transition just made me cringe a little. I did like the different magic types though and would’ve enjoyed hearing more about what each witch type was capable of
Minor spoiler

——————————

3/4 way through I was sure I wouldn’t read the sequel but then when the action finally begins and the last chapter!! Maybe I will 🤔

Content Warnings

hotwaterbottle's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

A modern fantasy novel focused on exploring the fault lines in contemporary feminism. Wondering how a magical matriarchy might address (or not) their duty towards non-white, non-straight, and non-cis witches? Want to reflect on how childhood friendships develop as you age? Looking for more Spice Girls references? This book has it covered.

Steady pace until the last quarter, which absolutely ripped along. Some developments felt like they were teased too early, or picked up and put down a few times before they were realized. I'm guessing the ending is a bit controversial

—that tends to happen, when you kill off (!?) a main character as the credits roll.

Definitely book one of a series—you've been warned!

Content Warnings

blacksphinx's review against another edition

Go to review page

tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

On one hand, I feel like the main message of this book is important and I'm glad its been so successful. But I bounced off of the extremely causal prose hard, and it was difficult to read so much misogyny directed at women by other women (please stop calling each other cunts holy shit!)

(I am also very tired of books that go "covid happened but we used magic to make it go away" ugh! And blaming the anti-vax movement on warlocks is so distasteful.)

Content Warnings