Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Gideon la Nona by Tamsyn Muir

83 reviews

thebookishfarmer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Body horror, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Grief, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Child death, and Death of parent

scarlettskyes's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, Cancer, Grief, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Medical content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Suicide, Confinement, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Terminal illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Blood, Chronic illness, Classism, Cursing, Medical trauma, and Child death

firstknight's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Death, Self harm, Cannibalism, Gore, and Suicidal thoughts

arobear's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

5.0

So conflicted on rating this book. In my heart I know it's a 5...

(but honestly the ending killed me and I want to yell for a long time.... I'm not sure I'm going to be ok anytime soon...)

but my feelings are complicated to put it best. I'll 100% be rereading it in the future though, and the sequels one I give myself a minute to recover. 

Worldbuilding and character development are excellent; the setting feels mysterious throughout and (for better or worse) I love the characters. They're my shitty little children now! 

Be ready for strong emotions though, fair warning. 

I want to see where it goes with the necromancers in space thread next. Not sure it will be for a while though.... just ugh my heart, I have so many feelings...

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Abandonment, Slavery, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Self harm

Minor: Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, and Confinement

possibilityleft's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gore, Child abuse, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Body horror, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Murder, Medical content, Genocide, Death, Cannibalism, Blood, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Child death, Abandonment, and Physical abuse

thewickedbookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

This is immediately my favorite book of January, and I wouldn't be surprised if it makes my top 10 of the year. I was not expecting the emotional toll and I need to read the sequels immediately. Tamsyn Muir is now an auto-buy author for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide, Murder, Physical abuse, Bullying, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, and Torture

Minor: Religious bigotry, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Abandonment, Blood, Grief, Self harm, Cancer, and Medical content

Mass child murder/sacrifice is a major plot device. Two teenagers are murdered in violent ways. Suicide is a major plot device, including parental suicide.

This is a bloody book full of necromantic characters, supported by personal warriors, who have varyingly dubious morals frequently caused by childhood trauma. There is no sexual violence or animal harm, but most other triggers can be found in this story.

jonie_rich's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious relaxing sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Vomit, War, Blood, Cancer, Child death, Cannibalism, Genocide, Gore, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, Grief, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

booking_along's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

4.25

If my heart had a dick you would kick it.

Gideon was one of the best characters to read about. She’s one of those characters that are just a joy to read. 
even though with Gideon, it’s a bit strange to say that, not only on regards of the story itself, but also her character which is just not a joyful character at all. 

She’s a snarky ball of sarcasm, deadly and stab happy and would fight a blanket if it looked at her either too long or in a funny way.

But at the same time she’s incredibly caring and loving, friendly and buried deep under all that quick snark she clearly likes people. 

so i just enjoyed her and how the story was told with her voice. 

the plot itself was good. 
honestly it was very chaotic and for 99% of the book it feels like nobody including the author actually knew where it was going and if anything will ever make sense or if there even is an explanation to everything. 
and for a lot of things there are never real and logical explanations given. 


the murder mysteries and strange puzzles and what it all means are interesting, but  i am not sure if i enjoyed it or was just happy once the story finally got over those sections and moved on to trying to short through what’s going on overall. 

also the constant thing of nobody being and doing what they were or said to be… it was a lot. 

and at the end… there kinda is one that makes some resemblance of sense, so there is that i guess? 
what i mean by that it is that there are some resemblance of tries given to explain what’s happening through this book ins own ways. but even those are chaotic and leave a lot more question then answers are given. 
also the end is a lot of action to the point where i just wanted it to come to an end somehow because i was getting bored with the kind of fights given. 


honestly this story is build on the characters and the writing style itself and less on the actual plot and/or logic or really any kind of connectable sense. 


the actual ending ending of this book through? 
i am not sure if i want throw something, cry, rip the book or either reread it right away or go on to the next one or never touch this series again. 

i am frustrated and sad and the same amounts of disbelief and shock that the author actual did that.

which to be fair is just part of the entire range of emotions i went through while reading the book. 


i enjoyed this book. a lot. 
but i also kind of hate it? 
which is interesting. not sure i ever raged loved a book before? wasn’t even aware sich a thing could happen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Stalking, Violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Torture, Toxic friendship, Blood, Cancer, and Chronic illness

ritte_e's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-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

3.75

Creative worldbuilding and solid plot once it gets rolling (which took a while, but it was worth hanging on!). The action scenes were exciting.  Gideon is likeable enough, but I really, really enjoyed the character that turned out to be the antagonist the most.

Critique:
Personally, I wasn't too fond of the narrator voice, too snarky for my taste and keeping track of all the characters and titles might have been easier if their given names were used more frequently to describe them.

As for the mystery, the stakes weren't too clear (how final is death in a necromancy setting? What was everyone's goals exactly?) so as a reader you were left guessing about a lot more than just the whodunit. I'm guessing navigating the pages will be easier in the sequel, now that the groundwork of the setting has been established.

I'm not sure yet what to make of the other main character, Harrow, but I'm sure I'll find out in the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Slavery

eeriekeri's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

The mysterious air of the book is fun. The relationship between Gideon and Harrow feels a little fast and forced, moving from "hate" to "love" with a speed that sometimes feels genuine and sometimes feels toxic. My main complaint is that nobody gets their kisses in in the entire book. Boo. Also, very grumpy that we don't get to enjoy the Gideon/Harrow stevonnie perspective for very long.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Violence, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Suicide, Child death, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Genocide