Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Witches of Vardø by Anya Bergman

23 reviews

victoria_mh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Misogyny, Grief, Death of parent, Violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Child abuse, Abandonment, Rape, Miscarriage, and Injury/Injury detail

There is a lot of very heavy stuff in this book;

I was expecting torture of 'witches' and that itself was hard to read, but then there's a full description of the teenage protagonist getting raped.

kiwialexa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Child death, Misogyny, Rape, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

hannahrhian's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Child death, Rape, Torture, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Murder, Miscarriage, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Confinement, and Blood

britters68's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Rape and Domestic abuse

batbaby's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad fast-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

It is such a beautiful book and one I’ll carry with me, there are such sad and graphic scenes but so thoughtfully and well written

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Violence, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Miscarriage, and Misogyny

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual content

Set during witch trials so comes with the upset and mistreatment of women associated with these times, fairly scary upsetting sexual assault of a minor page number in spoiler

page 260-264, it is mentioned maybe twice after that but not in graphic detail

ninamanon's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.25

A harrowing feminist tale about sisterhood, power, and justice. I loved Ingeborg and Maren instantly; they drew me into the story. I had a more difficult time getting through Fru Anna’s chapters, as she reads as haughty and annoyingly delusional, a sort of pick me girl. She irritated me greatly in the beginning, but the strength of the book was that the further you got into her story, the more you understood how she became the way she was, and in the end I couldn’t fault her and merely felt sorry for her, as I did for every other woman in the book. As for the ending,

I loved it: I loved how the conflict was resolved, how it ended with a shimmer of hope, how every single girl and woman was liberated in one way or another. I especially loved Maren and Elisa’s future: it is so beautiful to find a queer historical story that doesn’t end in misery. I will think of them often.

The prose was beautiful; I did have to get used to the first person narrative, and I struggled a bit at around the 30% mark, as Anna was boring me a bit with her tedious stories of her past lover, but as I said, I now understand their purpose. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexism, Vomit, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Infertility, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

ehs1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Child death, and Suicide

vbzshenanigans's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexism, Murder, Animal cruelty, Death, Infertility, Classism, Blood, Death of parent, Rape, Sexual violence, Confinement, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Religious bigotry, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Violence

contemporarymeepsie's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative tense medium-paced

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

3.5

The Witches of Vardo is a retelling of the true witch hunre that happened in Noway between 1662 and 1663. It follows 2 main characters: Anna Rhodius, an outspoken physician sent as a prisoner to Vardohus by the King of Denmark and Ingeborg Iversdatter, a teenage fisherman's daughter caught up in her mother's witch trial.
I enjoyed this book and the story it told. I found the historical side of it very interesting. Anya Bergman does a fantastic job of describing the desolate island of Vardo where the main portion of the story take place. I found the pacing steady and the novel easy to read despite some of the more difficult portions. My only issue with the whole thing is that Maren at the end *spoilers* is described as having true magical powers and that didnt sit right with me. The thing I like about this kind of book is how superstition and religion can taint the appearance of actual events to be 'like magic'. Therefore giving Maren the ability to summon birds or rats makes the whole thing too unrealistic for me. I know it's historical 'fiction' but that can be done without magical realism, in my mind. Just a little gripe, but overall the story was enjoyable and I would recommend it to someone interested in witch trials, historical fiction or magical realism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Racism, and Pregnancy

Minor: Infertility, Child death, and Suicide

bookwyrmdancer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Confinement, Child death, Suicide, Pregnancy, Murder, Rape, Violence, Blood, Death, Torture, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault