Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Daughter of the Forest

Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

28 reviews

clalaure's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.75

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kibbles15's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is a well written emotional roller coaster of a fairy tale. I literally could not put down the book and read it in one day. The author did an amazing job of interpreting the Grimm Brother's Tale "The Six Swans" (or "the Wild Swans") in a way that makes you feel the literal pain that both the sister and the six brothers feel as they work to break a curse on their family. In the process they are all presented with very real set-backs and trials. Please note that this book contains references to torture and rape. While it is a fairy tale, I would not recommend this book to young readers.

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bookishfaye's review

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Dnf’d at 40%…. Yeah it’s a hard pass from me after reading an incredibly violent gang r*pe of a 14 year old girl while her brothers are forced to watch & the assaulters kill her dog. When will authors stop using violent SA of women as a plot device?? This added nothing to the plot whatsoever & I’m so incredibly angry about it as I was really enjoying this book.

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bookswithangeli's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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deathmetalpainter's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? No

4.5

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leah24601's review

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

5.0

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katiemcgregor's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Wow. I just realized that this one has been sitting on my TBR for 7 years.

Daughter of the Forest is filled with atmosphere and slow building. This book takes it's time in everything it does and finds a beautiful rhythm within itself. While the Six Swansfairytale, is not original to this book, Marillier tells it in a way that makes it feel new, yet faithful to the source material. If you're to read any retelling of the story, this one is a great place to start.

Marillier's ability to craft her characters had me feeling their every pain (which there is a lot of) and basking in every joy. She does an incredible job of cultivating palpable relationships between the characters, which I imagine to be especially tricky since our main character, Sorcha, is mute for the majority of the book.

The other thing I'm especially impressed with is how the main villain of this book was portrayed. In some ways he was a bit of a caricature, but I honestly can't complain because Marillier made him so easy to hate.

Daughter of the Forest is a must read for lovers of slow burn and folklore. The Celtic setting is completely immersive and the storytelling is timeless.

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