Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

16 reviews

anonymous_traveller's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, Ableism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Misogyny, Grief, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, War, Murder, Physical abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, and Slavery

pkc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

I bought this on a bit of a whim in 2021 thinking “why not indulge in another subversion of the Cinderella fairytale?” but I guess…like there’s no other subversion worth consuming. This is it. 

Holy crap I LOVED this story.

The protagonist was so engaging, so strong but proudly showed her vulnerabilities. The villain made my skin crawl. The love interests were fully formed characters in their own right who didn’t just serve to enhance the protagonists story. Representation was incredible (a POC MC, very queer).

Around the tail end of last year, I saw someone do a list of reading icks that they’d hope might be left in 2022. One of them was adults reading young adult books, as if it was somehow a lower class of read that shouldn’t be indulged. It really rankled me when I saw it as a 33 year old lover of YA and books like this beautifully explain why. 

This a story, aimed at young adults, that is absolutely about using your voice to speak out against oppression. It’s not the manic pixie dreamgirl or feelingsy guy that you find in the stereotypes that the genre is wrongly thought to comprise of exclusively. 

Sophia is a strong, ferocious human being who is guided by and intently focused on the right thing to do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Animal death, Biphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Torture, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Hate crime, and Sexism

saskiahill's review against another edition

fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Trafficking, Grief, Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Physical abuse

bookswithlauren's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

I enjoy books that take our classic fairytales and twist them, look at them from a different perspective and weave an entirely different story. I particularly enjoy how Kalynn Bayron explores how much of a negative impact fairytales can have on a society, something I have often thought about. 

We are fed these stories about lives, people, how they do and should live, from a very young age. When, in reality, they are idealistic, narrow minded and unrealistic. Not every girl is going to grow up to find and marry the man of her dreams, have children and live a perfect life she loves as a home maker. But these stories don't show us any diversity or inclusion of any kind. Children learn from fairytales and I don't think our typical fairytales are teaching anything useful and I love the way Kalynn explores this in Cinderella is Dead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Murder, Classism, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Blood, Bullying, Death, Grief, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Trafficking, and War

emilywrayburn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed the first third, felt it dragged in the middle but picked up again in the end. I loved the idea of a fairytale as propaganda. It's in first person which probably explains why I felt I had a strong sense of Sophia but not so much of the characters. I liked the way she and Constance worked together but didn't really feel much chemistry between them, so the romance fell kinda flat for me. The twist on the fairy godmother was great. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

karcitis's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious fast-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexism, and Misogyny

Moderate: Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Violence, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Murder, Sexual violence, Grief, Death, Confinement, and Body horror

Minor: Outing, Classism, Death of parent, Animal death, Excrement, and Animal cruelty

antinanco's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Sexism, Abandonment, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, War, Grief, Pedophilia, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

Minor: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Stalking, Cannibalism, Cursing, and Slavery

lea_reads16's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Homophobia, and Sexism

loongbooy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad fast-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, and Body horror

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, and Pedophilia

kynajayne's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

I absolutely loved it. Such a fresh take on the story of Cinderella, and a great feminist critique and exploration of the influence of history and fairytales and how they interact.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence