Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

55 reviews

fayesavanne's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

Love how books were such a big part, reminds me of howl's moving castle and loved the romance 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Blood, Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, Violence, Murder, Death, and Child death

Minor: Vomit, Child abuse, and Sexual harassment

margaret_k30's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Death of parent

Moderate: Vomit, Physical abuse, Murder, Self harm, Violence, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, and Kidnapping

Minor: Classism, Gore, Grief, Blood, Body shaming, and Medical trauma

nat_kiverse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Misogyny, Grief, Body horror, Self harm, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Gaslighting, Death, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

itsnotalakeitsanocean's review

funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I don't think I was entirely in the right frame of mind for a book like this but also as I was reading, I got the sense that it was aimed for a demographic significantly younger than me. That isn't to say it isn't good at all, rather that it's a perfectly fine book that would be better suited to people either getting into fantasy or are just new to reading in general.

Things I liked:

• It was suitably descriptive and was easy to imagine the kind of world the characters inhabited.
• No awkward sexual content for the sake of sexual content. Disclaimer that I have nothing wrong with smut being in books (I've written smut fanfic myself) but it feels like there's an expectation in books these days - especially ones that booktok focuses on - to have sex scenes in them, and they end up coming across as gratuitous rather than the evolution of a couple's relationship. The closes thing that happens is a sexy makeout session that gets stopped by another character.
• On a related note, the romance was pretty good. I still think we didn't get much of what Elisabeth sees in Nathaniel compared to what he sees in her, but they're a cute, slightly chaotic couple. It especially felt like the romance was more of a side plot rather than the main focus, which was nice.
• Speaking of romance, we have some good representation in the form of Nathaniel who mentions he's bisexual in a very natural way, and it's just accepted before moving on.

Things I didn't like:

• The pacing felt a bit all over the place, and as a result some things felt like they were over before they had even begun. Sometimes it felt that Elisabeth and other characters were going through a checklist of things to make the plot progress rather than it happening organically. Two spoilery examples come to mind:

1. Elisabeth being institutionalised and her subsequent escape felt like it happened way faster than it should have. It felt like the author had plans for it to be longer but couldn't find the appropriate research or changed her mind last minute but didn't take out the scene because otherwise it would have ruined the progression of events.
2. Silas' first death is supposed to be treated as this massive stakes raising moment forces Nathaniel and Elisabeth to think for themselves instead of having to rely on him constantly... or so I thought until Nathaniel essentially goes "right, let's go to the basement and re-summon him; I'll just bleed on the old pentagram and he'll be back in a jiffy", which really killed the stakes for the remainder of the book.

• Your mileage may vary heavily on this point of contention, but some of the foreshadowing was very obvious to me. This is one of the main reasons I feel like the book was definitely aimed at younger/less experienced readers than myself.
• A very minor thing but I got annoyed at the author's use of the Noodle Incident trope for funny moments involving Nathaniel. It happens a lot in another one of my favourite series - The Gallagher Girls - but that series is aimed at a younger demographic, and the protagonist of that series is often telling noodle incidents that she has only heard of instead of directly participating in.
  
  In contrast to here where Nathaniel is describing things that happened to him to make him seem charming, I think there could have been moments where instead of Nathaniel describing a Noodle Incident that happened to him, Elisabeth could have either witnessed an incident or come in partway through/at the tail end of an incident. 
• The ending felt extremely rushed and anticlimactic. It felt like the author got bored of writing the story and just wanted to wrap it up as soon as possible. And I still have no idea why Nathaniel lost his powers at the end.

And something double-edged I both liked and didn't like:

• We have some decent aroace representation - and a Black aroace character to boot! I'm grateful that Katrien's sexual orientation is alluded to but not dwelt upon. Again, it ties back to the idea that the romance was a side thing rather than a big focus of the story.
  
  ...Unfortunately Katrien is barely in this story, and feels more like a token Black Best Friend that Elisabeth occasionally communicates with for updates on the Summerhall Library, rather than a fully realised person.
  It was especially annoying that Katrien supposedly single-handedly investigated the new director and documented his crimes so that he could be punished off-screen. I believe the author wants this to be a standalone story, but I would like to have a short story or just something about Katrien's off screen chronicles.
  
  
  There were a few other Black characters that felt more like they were there for token representation, but it didn't irk me as much as it did Katrien.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, and Death of parent

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Child death

mald626's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Grief and Panic attacks/disorders

ankiaisreading's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Grief, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Torture, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Violence, and War

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Violence, and Sexism

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Sexual violence

Minor: Physical abuse

glass_carousel's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Sexism

Moderate: Vomit and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Forced institutionalization

hannasreads's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

sarahsbooklife's review

adventurous funny mysterious relaxing tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is a book that I've wanted to read for ages, especially after loving Margaret Rogerson's first book so much, but I've been putting it off because I feared I wouldn't like it as much as her debut novel or that it wouldn't live up the hype surrounding it. But I am glad that I did read because I loved it. 
It's such a good book. 
It has magical books, sorcery, demons and a girl that wields a sword. For me that's a perfect mix of things I love to see in a story. Oh, and with a sprinkling of romance on top. 
Great book. Highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders