Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune

144 reviews

cj13's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Racism, Blood, Death of parent

joyfulteacup's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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: Complicated

---

Any opportunity to return to this lovable family of characters is a delight. I love them all. Only TJ Klune could balance heavier emotional and political weight of the narrative with silliness, joy, hope, and love so that the book remains a cozy fantasy. One of my favorite reads of 2025.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Grief, Abandonment

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Colonisation, Deportation

Minor: Body shaming, Homophobia, Transphobia

traceyanderson's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail

meredithnudo's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Hate crime, Death of parent

None of the content warnings are endorsed by the author. The story is about fighting many different types of bigotry.

erika_winters's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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: Yes

---

Wow, what a sequel! TJ Klune does it again with this one. Although this book is thematically different from the first, both can be read as two sides of the same coin. Told from Arthur’s perspective this time around, we get to hear how he thinks and feels being the last phoenix on Earth, and what it has meant to him over the years to shoulder the weight of everyone’s trauma, including his own. The way this book handles trauma makes it special because it doesn’t provide a cure for it; but rather a way to live through it and piece yourself together from the trauma. Arthur has found his family and beloved, and has to learn how to combat the hateful people in the world beyond Marsyas Island—including the hateful Harriet Marblemaw inspecting the home and his behavior toward the children—while also allowing the children to find themselves in the world and learning from it themselves instead of having Arthur shelter them away from it. Overall, I thought the conversation around this, and the looming fear of the government (including one Jeanine Rowder, who is probably based on a certain bigoted author of a popular fantasy series) taking the children away from Arthur and Linus. I cried 5 or 6 times from pure joy and from the emotional speeches shared between Arthur and Linus, so be prepared for tears here! This is now up there in my favorite books, along with the first book. Impeccable series (and I hope more is to come!)

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization

Minor: Body shaming, Abandonment, Colonisation

sierraullman's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

---

This series just warmed my heart so much! The characters are so lovable and it's just such a real story of found family and perseverance. Also found myself relating a lot of the storyline to real life. The representation in the book is phenomenal. Can't wait to read more by TJ Klune. 

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Xenophobia

tfaydoyle's review against another edition

5.0

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

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

---

Another immensely enjoyable and profoundly moving novel. Having to take a break halfway through did not diminish the book, rather made the themes all the more devastatingly important for those who cannot put the book of their lives down and take a four month break. Wonderful and illuminating as always.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Police brutality, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Classism, Deportation

kailanlovescats's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

Much more tense than the first book, but just as hopeful and warm! At first I didn't think there needed to be a sequel, but the continuation was really nice. 

With the way the US is right now, this is a very relevant story. I will spoil that the ending is very hopeful, so perhaps we can mirror that hopefulness irl!

For my critiques, there were times when descriptions felt a bit extra and like run on sentences. Like when saying something about one of the children, he then mad sure to say something about all of them as well. 

The audiobook narrator also let me down a bit. His voices sometimes took me out of the story, and the dramatics he added at times was too much. Perhaps this is just me, but I also imagined the story taking place in a fictional UK, yet the majority of accents were American. Probably just a me problem, but it would've been more fun!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Racism, Xenophobia

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Confinement, Physical abuse, Death of parent

angelamae's review against another edition

5.0

funny hopeful inspiring 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

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Xenophobia

badgal93's review against another edition

4.0

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Physical abuse, Abandonment