Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Witch and the Vampire by Francesca Flores

16 reviews

refrejarator's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, War, Bullying, Torture, Confinement, Grief, Emotional abuse, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child abuse, Death of parent, Animal death, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

mo_ber's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Torture, and Murder

micaelacccc's review against another edition

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? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Violence, Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Death, Animal death, Death of parent, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Murder

sarrie's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

1.0

 

TL;DR - Nah. 

This was a huge miss for me from almost the first page. Ava and Kaye are two friends separated for years after Ava is turned (unwillingly) into a vampire and Kaye's mother is murdered. Ava knows nothing of the murder of Kaye's mother, instead she has been locked in her parents home abused and tortured by her family. Kaye has decided, after glimpsing Ava with blood on her face in a window, that Ava murdered her mother and has spent two years planning her revenge. 

The plot is fairly simple, I'd venture so far as to say basic. The writing verges more into the simplistic style of middle grade novels with the amount of telling instead of showing, and the frankly stupidity of the characters. Kaye is for me the most frustrating, she makes assumptions and from there forward they are her facts. She has no room for critical thinking, and is incredibly frustrating to read about. Ava is unfortunately just as weak with very little personality. 

Additionally there were a lot of topics and themes in this that were just handled poorly. From parental abuse to the racism and into the humans vs vampires feud. All of this could have been examined and broken apart, looked at and studied but it felt clumsily shoved in for some depth to the world. 

This one was not a winner for me, I was left mostly annoyed while reading it so I unfortunately can't say I recommend it. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Racial slurs, Blood, and Murder

vixenreader's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Repetition of themes and plot points, and hammering home said themes and plot points are the book’s weakness, but the central characters, romance, and immense folklore and imagination make up for the novel’s shortcomings. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Confinement, Violence, Grief, Abandonment, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Medical content, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Cannibalism, Gore, and Kidnapping

Minor: Slavery, Ableism, and War

There is also destruction of nature, people being chained and imprisoned, and abusive mother-daughter dynamics.

krisalexcole's review

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Death, and Murder

anastasia_raf's review

slow-paced

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

2.75

"Trust looks like a girl who wants to live so badly she forgot she's dead." 

Ava and Kaye used to be best friends. Until everything changed. The two friends were not only separated by not only two different worlds- a witch bound by duty and a vampire bound by " call It what you will, fate, destiny... - A horse." ( See what I did there tangled fans?) but by actual life and death. Can the two build a bridge to connect these two worlds? Or shall I say, can they see the light in a society that uses hatred as a fog? Scary and malicious until you cross and get to the other side. 

If you find all these themes interesting then my I guess is this book is for you, and I recommend you pick it up. But I'm not here to discuss only ideas, I'm here to discuss the execution of said ideas as well. Following is my personal opinion, what I want and look for in a book and in no way shape or form Is my intention to discourage you from reading this book. This audiobook  was provided to me by Netgalley and  Dreamscape Media in exchange for an honest review! Many thanks to the publishers. 

It was just trying to do too much. It was Vampire diaries mixed with first kill and twilight, with some Rapunzel themes involved. In my opinion, it had nothing going for it but vibes. 

Sometimes one of the protagonists would have an epiphany about their beliefs and opinions starting to actually analyze them and question them, then next thing you know they're back like this whole act of thinking belonged to someone else entirely!  
 The characters felt  two- dimensional. All we ever got about Kaye's past was that her mother was dead...And in a weird sense I felt like she was grieving her in everyone else's eyes other than her own? What I mean by this Is that death seemed like an excuse to everyone's actions but without necessarily having dealt with such grief or actually stop and feel it. Was she actually grieving her mother? because that's what it kept saying and yet not showing.  
 The end was unsatisfactory to say the least.
 Ava was a mix of Bella with some nuances of Rapunzel and some sprinkles of a cliche ya protagonist. I just wish it would've done more. Especially from a such overused "genre" like vampires and witches. It relied too much on it being an inspiration of famous tales, series and stories that it forgot to bring it's own. Everything was so underdeveloped. Predictable. And calluna did never feel like a person that really existed. I guess in that sense it succeed in her being a memory but not actually empathizing with her or caring for Kaye's loss. 

The only bonus for me was the queerness and the lack of the said word. Sexuality just existed and it didn't have to be analyzed or categorized.
The pace was satisfactory. The audiobook's narration was very pleasant. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Emotional abuse, Violence, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

collinsd's review

adventurous 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

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Murder, and Confinement

I didn't realise until a few pages in that this book was a retelling of Rapunzel/Tangled

the similarities being the protagonist locked in a tower with floor length long hair, a mother using her daughter's magic, magical flowers

. The book started off really well was interesting enough until it started getting repetitive and hard to follow

they kept getting captured and escaping and after the third time I was really over it. Additionally what was the point of the Tristan character like he was just there

Additionally I didn't really buy the romance between Ava & Kaye like we really could've had a proper friends to enemies to lovers arc I feel a bit robbed (if there's a second book and they developed more of their relationship I'd be down but this was just not giving what it should've). I really struggled to finish it and at end I was like oh ok it's over now. In saying that I really liked Ava as a character but I would've rather had Nuira as a protagonist instead of Kaye

like if she was so convinced that Ava killed her mother why didn't she storm up to Ava's house and demand answers, like she had all this rage and sadness instead just channelled it into being a sheep

All in in all it could've been better but it was a good concept and with a bit of tweaking and revision it could've been phenomenal.

taelights's review against another edition

I honestly really not vibing with this story. I kept hoping it would get better but it honestly it didn't. 

The writing is bad and repetitive. The world building is bad and hard to understand. Plus both main characters are both so annoying to me. 

Also like i don't have issues with witches and/or vampires in general becaus I think there are respectful ways to write those types of creatures. But then there are ways to write those creatures that play into antisemitism. Personally I thought this book kind of protrayed vampires, and in a way witches, with antisemitic / blood libel themes which I personally foubd uncomfortable and yucky. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Emotional abuse, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Antisemitism

carolibrary's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, and Child abuse