Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Gothikana by RuNyx

6 reviews

marinajonesreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I got through it. Solid 2. The writing was at time pedantic and the plot lacked a lot of substance. I think we I saw “gothic romance” I was thinking along the lines of Adalyn Grace’s “Foxglove” — a slow burn, out of time, dark romance. This was dark. I will give it that. I would strongly advise one check the content warnings before reading. But the ending just lacked so much. It kind of was just there. I felt like we’d been building to something supernatural or even just unexpected. But we instead get a Scooby Do-esq storyline. And I was still left with so many questions. And not in a fun way. This felt, at times, like one big spicy book with words around it in the vague wispy form of a plot. Ironic, I know. Would I recommend? Probably not.

But I will say, the cover, binding and sprayed purple edges are beautiful. The purple and black is such a solid choice. Love the Verenmore gold foil. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide, Grief, Terminal illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent, Incest, Blood, and Bullying

btwnprintedpgs's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The mystery in this book kept me interested, but the twist wasn't for me. One part surprised me, but the other part seemed reductive and trite.

As a whole, didn't love the romance, but that's because it's very lusty and not much "get to know you" happened. The demi in me just couldn't get on board with it all. The sexy parts seemed unrealistic at times too, but that's a whole other conversation. Also, I felt like there were just a lot of questions I never got answers to, and while the characters might've been fine with it, I wanted to know as it felt like a huge part of the mystery of it all.

In the end, I was interested throughout, but a lot of it was just a miss for me as things came to light. Great for gothic girlies who love when the LI calls the MC a "good girl" and enjoys a little bit of a psychological/paranormal thriller. I am not that type of girly.

Rep: Parent with schizophrenia and dementia

TW: blood, suicide, murder, death, torture, fire, sexual content, kidnapping; mentions abandonment, death of a parent, bullying 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Suicide, Murder, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Torture

Minor: Bullying, Abandonment, and Death of parent

adevilsmind's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Pedophilia, Blood, and Bullying

amelierawr's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

1.0

I seriously don't know why the rating is so good, it was worse than bad- it's straight up horrible.
unhealthy dynamic, teacher-student relationship, terrible description of mental illness and let's not forget the rape downplayed as "it's always painful when you lose your virginity".
cannot wrap my head around  how the ML stayed as a teacher even though rumors of him sleeping with students went around...like, what? how did he not get fired? no legal actions, nothing.

only good thing about the book is the actually not that bad of an idea the teacher-student relationship. both of them are adults, she is doing her graduation and he is doing his PhD while also teaching at the school. Still, there is an unhealthy power dynamic, which is problematic. Based on that premise itself, it  could've been a really good *actual* "dark romance".

and ofc i have to consider the bad writing for my rating, bc eh

(didn't drop bc i was nearly finished anyway)

all in all,
1/10 - even Ben Shapiros trashy fascist novel was a better read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Bullying and Suicide

alexandryareads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Murder, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Death

Moderate: Bullying and Medical content

Minor: Medical trauma

bookspace's review against another edition

emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Bullying