Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Lightlark by Alex Aster

43 reviews

grace_9613's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious slow-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? Yes

2.5

I am confused…. 😅

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Sexual content, and Cannibalism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Fire/Fire injury

gayelfboi's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

1.0

Begging people who think this is good fantasy writing to get better standards lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Xenophobia, Blood, Violence, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Body horror, Cannibalism, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Grief, Sexual assault, Genocide, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

_ohheyisabella_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.0

I was entertained by this book the way that I was watching Twilight, knowing that it was no great masterpiece but was endlessly entertaining.

While some of the descriptions and names of objects/places were childish, it was fun to read. I did not need to think too hard and could relax while following along the plot with the main character. Yes, the book has its faults, but I liked it and will most likely be purchasing the next book in the series.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Genocide, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Cannibalism, and Medical content

love-triangle

cdoubet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Cursing, Gaslighting, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, War, Mental illness, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death of parent, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol

ladymickbeth's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, and War

Minor: Death of parent and Vomit

I’ll be honest, I didn’t see a fair amount of the plot twists coming. Other than that, there is nothing good about this book. World didn’t feel fleshed out, writing was terrible with its sentence fragments not used very artfully, and the exposition was just dropped in, sometimes very loosely related to what’s going on at the moment and long-winded.

thenovelmaura's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

1.5

I've heard that people are review-bombing this title with negative ratings, so I want to make it clear that I won an ARC of Lightlark from a #YALLWest giveaway back in June. I am notoriously late when reviewing books and I also didn't want to leave a negative review that would get me targeted by all of the rabid Alex Aster fans on BookTok (a bit paranoid of me but I've had a bad experience with this in the past). I will say that I went on Alex Aster's Instagram page to see what all of the fuss was about, and watched a few of her reels about her book right before reading it. She did make reels about scenes that did not take place in the book (something about a thunderstorm that causes the MC and a love interest to get trapped in a cave?) and I did think that was strange at the time.

Anyway, there's not much to say about this book because the writing is not great, I felt no connection to the characters, and the world-building is terrible. Beyond the laughable naming conventions (Starlings, Skylings, Wildlings, Moonlights, and Nightshades [the bad ones]), it's lacking in descriptions of the island, the realms, and even the curses, which the entire plot hinges on. There was also very little action and the classic "ancient man falls for teen girl" trope.

I'm giving it 1.5 stars because it was a quick, mindless read and there's nothing inherently wrong with leaning into predictable YA fantasy tropes or using them to market your book. This book just wasn't offering anything beyond that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content

sarahfr1end's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Vomit, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content

callmesword's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

The fantasy aspect had me sold but once I read it, I did not appreciate how the only representation is shoved onto the same character who's more of a background character than a side character and the fact that the love interests are 500+ years older than the MC who's only 20 years old. This book had so much potential, it disappointed me. I was promised a Hunger Games type of book, let me tell you, it's not that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: War

Minor: Death and Genocide

katvou's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Cannibalism, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexual content, and Death of parent

kaetheluise_nckl's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Child abuse

Minor: Genocide, Death of parent, and War