Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

26 reviews

jennay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

Very well written/ read.

Would love to see this become a movie - if the producers can capture the emotions of the book accurately. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Abortion, Child abuse, Hate crime, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Racism, Animal death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual violence, and Racial slurs

cassiopeia_lucky_fowkes's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-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

This book is AMAZING I have read it twice now, I love it so much! 

You end up falling in love with the characters like they are you own Sisters (note the capital S) 
Only read if you are okay with crying for ten minutes at various parts of the book (this happened to me both times I read it!)

It has an amazing plot with lots of plot twists that grip and pull you into the story and dont let you go until its done

I wish this book had a sequal!

Also the writing style is amazing, there is the perfect amount of description to allow you to imagine sort of the more fine details in how a character looks for example but also gives you a good base 
the settings are also described in this way

I cant tell you how much I love this book tbh it changed the way I look at everything and changed my life too!

I highly recommend to any feminist out there.

Let the fire inside your heart continue to burn and let this book help it to burn brighter with fury, love, hate and hope.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Abortion, Cursing, Alcohol, Death, Toxic friendship, Blood, Pregnancy, Body shaming, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia

I put all the content warnings in graphic because i dont have time to sort them! Also some are so minor they are only one sentence or word

laurenlreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Abortion

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Violence, and Domestic abuse

mel_s_bookshelf's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, Suicide, Medical trauma, and Sexism

Moderate: Abortion and Homophobia

_teoeo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad slow-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

This was a fantastic book!! I enjoyed it soooo much. Don't know how I feel about retelling fairy tales but in this book it is well done. Couldn't decide if I should rate it 4,75 or 5 stars but I loved it so much it just HAS to be 5 stars.
Please look at the trigger and content  warnings before reading it, because it really was a lot sometimes.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Animal death, Classism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Medical trauma, Sexism, and Suicide

Moderate: Torture, Transphobia, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal cruelty, Slavery, and Animal death

maregred's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Suicide, Misogyny, Police brutality, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Outing, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Grief, and Racism

Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Cursing, Animal death, Classism, Religious bigotry, Animal cruelty, Transphobia, and Domestic abuse

thresholdgirl's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Body horror, Pregnancy, and Suicide

Moderate: Racism, Homophobia, Xenophobia, and Sexism

Minor: Alcoholism and Confinement

antimonium's review

adventurous dark emotional slow-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

4.0

Overall enjoyable read but it dragged a bit. The first half of the book there was a lot of focus on rehashing trauma internally but not communicating about it so it gets compounded from misunderstanding. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Pregnancy, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

anaguana's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Homophobia, Torture, Racism, Sexual assault, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Suicide, Abortion, and Death

Minor: Transphobia

chalkletters's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring sad 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

I wasn't expecting much from The Once and Future Witches; I only gave The Factory Witches of Lowell three stars, and this seemed like such a similar idea that I was surprised book club would add it to our list when we'd already experienced exactly this subgenre. I was absolutely wrong, The Once and Future Witches is up there with The Goblin Emperor and An Accident of Stars as one of the best books we've read.

Despite being a lover of fantasy novels, magic systems aren't that important to me. The distinctions between hard and soft, rules-light and rules-heavy rarely influence how I feel about a book. But I absolutely loved what Alix E Harrow did with the magic in The Once and Future Witches, because it's all based in reality, but given a clever and literary twist. Spells are hidden in nursery rhymes and stories, and so many of them begin with familiar words. Similarly, Alix E Harrow takes familiar concepts and weaves them into her world in a way that delighted and surprised me every time. 

In a similar way, the prose was full of clever twists and references and beautiful sentences that I loved. While the style seems simple, it's also very clever, building in references and allusions that will become more important later. I'm sure The Once and Future Witches would be a joy to reread! 

While the magic reminded me of Chocolat, the world-building shows a greater divergence from reality, something more akin to Dread Nation. I loved that so many of the significant historical and mythological figures were female versions of those found in our world: Alexandra Pope, Queen Midas, to name just two. It made me wonder if reading this feels a little like being a man in our world, where so many important figures affirm your gender. The Once and Future Witches is an explicitly feminist book, though Alix E Harrow does flesh out positive male characters just as well. 

Which brings me on to the characters, who I adored. Even though the Eastwood Sisters, and many of the others, were built on archetypes, they were incredibly well-drawn and developed. Of course, as a reader and reviewer of books, not to mention a notebook enthusiast, I loved (Beatrice) Bella the librarian and note-keeper, but Agnes' story was just as compelling, maybe even more so. To round out the three witches, I should also say that I cried harder in Juniper's chapters than I think I have in any book I've read for book club. The ending of The Once and Future Witchesis powerful and deeply sad, but not a total tragedy. 

I have absolutely nothing bad to say, which doesn't happen often. And for once, I haven't struggled to articulate all the things I loved about The Once and Future Witches. Fingers crossed I'm just as able to string my thoughts together at book club.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexism, Violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Blood, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Racism