Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall

49 reviews

garbage_mcsmutly's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

A delightful adventure of two young women's love, in a magical version of regency England that's full of witches and fairies and old gods and magic. I sometimes have trouble getting into sapphic romances but this one was a quick easy read that grabbed me right away. The narrative framing was great.

The whodunnit that we start with seemed very obvious, but then it turned out to not be the real focus of the story, so I was more okay with it having been obvious. The rest of the story was well done. 

And Alexis Hall always treats the characters (especially the queer ones) with the respect and nuance they deserve, which I really appreciate.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual content, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Racism, Blood, Kidnapping, and Classism

Minor: Rape, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Despite all the content warnings, this was a pretty easy, low-to-medium stakes read; nothing terribly traumatic to most readers.

booksthatburn's review against another edition

funny lighthearted 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

MORTAL FOLLIES is a story of curses and romance, narrated by a faerie intimated to be Robin/Puck of A Midsummer Night's Dream. While it is set in 1814, Puck seems to be telling the story from some time further in the future, possibly in the 21st century. Maelys seems to be cursed, and keeps running into a woman nicknamed "the Duke of Annadale" who is rumored to have murdered her own father and brothers. She's also rumored to know magic, and seems to be Maelys's only chance at getting rid of the curse (as long as she's not really the one who cast it). 

The romance was fun, and the stakes escalated appropriately. I liked the story but found Puck frustrating as a narrator. Because they are recalling these events from so far in the future, their interjections kept me from sinking completely into the 19th century setting. It seems like these may form some overarching story which moves between books, but it happened to hit upon a style I don't personally enjoy.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Death of parent, War, and Classism

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

20sidedbi's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Blood

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Racism, Sexual violence, and Classism

alli_gator's review against another edition

I can’t stand Miss Bicky or Robin, the narrator, those two characters have made my reading experience horrible. They’re annoying characters with far too many plot-interrupting quips. And while I love fantasy regency era stuff and I love lgbt+ stuff, I had high hopes that this book would have been just a tad more historically accurate on the general homophobia of the time. It certainly wouldn’t have been so knowledgeable that Miss Mitchelmore would have let herself be so forward or even allow Miss Bicky to be so loud about her queerness. I was just so annoyed by how helter-skelter the plot is that I couldn’t stand to read a page more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Rape and Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia

chase0w0's review

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Minor: Racism, Slavery, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia

dylertaniel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Sexual harassment

flashandoutbreak's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

sommermeyer27's review

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Sexual content

Moderate: Animal death and Murder

Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

raptorq's review

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Sexual content and Medical content

Minor: Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, and Sexual harassment

blewballoon's review

dark emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

I'm giving this a 3 because I can see how it could work for the right reader, but unfortunately it didn't work for me. The fairy narrator's commentary is mostly what ruined my reading experience. I didn't find it funny or enhancing to the story, and it broke my immersion constantly. I feel like I can understand what it was going for, but it missed the mark in my opinion and as I was reading I wished it had been cut entirely. Due to the narration, I felt very removed from the human characters in the story and it was harder to get invested in them or their plot, which is paced erratically. In addition to the pacing feeling off, I thought the romance did as well. I did not feel the chemistry, and I didn't want these women to be together. It's lamp-shaded in the text that the Duke is a Byronic broody character, but she came off as dry and cold to me rather than mysterious and deep. I don't know if maybe this just needed some more time and editing, or I wasn't in the mood, but I didn't have the good time reading this that I had wanted to. I listened to the audiobook at 1.6 speed, if I had been reading it myself I probably would have taken weeks to finish because I wasn't into it. Still a big fan of Alexis Hall and I'll definitely be reading more of their books, just not more of this series probably.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, and Death of parent