Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Forging Silver into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer

17 reviews

crocus's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, and Miscarriage

taryn_g's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Blood, Death, Alcoholism, Animal death, Grief, Miscarriage, War, Death of parent, and Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy and Vomit

kori_dragon's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

I didn't read the Cursebreaker series before this one. And it's do-able, but you miss a lot of the history and backstory to side characters who play a big part of the plot progression. The three main viewpoints are Jax and Callyn (two Briarlock villagers), and Tycho (who has history that is briefly mentioned). 

I really enjoyed this story and the intrigue about it. Three people who don't know who is on which side, and the villagers who don't know which is the right side.  Each chapter is a different viewpoint, so you get to see their opinions, viewpoints, and reasoning. The story starts slow but draws you in until you don't know what is happening. The last few chapters went fast and took a surprising turn which makes me eager for the next book in this series. 

Jax became my favorite character and I think he evolved the most. Callyn comes across as stubborn at times and not willing to admit they are wrong. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual assault, Animal death, and Sexual content

the_ash37's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

this book was amazing. i am obsessed. it was so well written and the characters were exciting and loveable. i was hooked onto the story since the start, which rarely happens with books that are this long. i usually lose interest quickly but i was very surprised with how much i loved it. i had never heard of the book before but i saw it in a bookshop and i decided to try it. i hope that this book and all of kemmerers books get more recognition because she is a truly wonderful author. i cant wait to read her other books and fall in love with her characters again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Addiction, Death, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, and Animal death

Minor: Child death, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

reading_leaf's review against another edition

I don’t know it’s just got too much yucky power dynamics for me and it’s rather triggering. Also very slow and lacks world building that gives me a want to care. Theres *spoiler*

Romance between characters thats good and I love the representation but it’s just yucky. It has a lot of potential but I just keep reading other books and kinda hate coming back to this book so I just stopped. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Sexism, Physical abuse, Death, and Classism

speddle's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

Surprising romance!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Physical abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and War

Moderate: Child death, Blood, Death, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Animal death

geekmom's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A tightly paced and engaging read. I look forward to the sequel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and War

aj_readsfantasy06's review

adventurous relaxing medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse

katvou's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Murder

Moderate: Physical abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Violence

Minor: Blood, Child death, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Animal death, and Miscarriage

snowwhitehatesapples's review

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

 Review can also be found at Snow White Hates Apples.

Forging Silver into Stars brings us back to the Cursebreakers ' world years after the conclusion of A Vow So Bold and Deadly . Though this time, we revisit this world through the perspectives of new characters and old supporting characters—something I greatly appreciate because although I would’ve loved to read the story in any of the original main cast’s POV again, I think this change provides an opportunity for the Cursebreakers ' world to be expanded beyond the limitations of those characters.

And, true to expectations, it did. Set mostly in Syhl Shallow, Forging Silver into Stars follows Callyn, an older sister and baker who’s in debt because of her deceased father’s actions, and Jax, a disabled blacksmith who’s also in debt due to his abusive father’s preference for drinking away their money. The story also follows Tycho, who is from the original trilogy and is now King’s Courier. Through these alternating POVs, not only did we get to learn more about the world beyond castle walls, but also witness different, realistic perspectives on the aftermath of ending a conflict between two kingdoms.

However, as the main characters aren’t the actual targets of the anti-magic faction’s schemes in Syhl Shallow, there were several instances that made the story feel convenient—all for the sake of providing those characters with more links to the main plot. Some of the events that happened between Callyn and Jax also felt ridiculous, especially since they are supposedly best friends. Honestly, I still can’t wrap my head around how (view spoiler). Like, is caring supposed to only be a one-way thing when it comes to best friends?

So yeah, you can probably tell by now that I really dislike Callyn. She’s selfish, easily manipulated and a piss-poor best friend, but she’s also undeniably human. Though, if she were real, she should thank her lucky stars that Kemmerer’s writing is too darn good for me to stay pissed off enough to DNF the book. Jax and Tycho, on the other hand, were sweethearts. I love their characters and their growth. Even so, I have to admit that none of these new main characters are as interesting as Grey and Rhen and their dynamic, or as compelling as Harper.

In fact, despite their delegation to side cast status, he few appearances Grey and Rhen made were brilliant reiterations of their core characteristics while providing more facets to who they are. I’ve seen some reviews mentioning that Grey was intentionally written in such a way so that readers would start disliking him, but I disagree. It made him a more complex character and gave him solid flaws that accompanied his strengths.

Overall, what made Forging Silver into Stars a strong read for me is undeniably the author’s enthralling writing (it’s either magic or a curse because even when I hate a character, I’m still hooked by the writing 😂). If you loved the Cursebreakers series and don’t mind any of the abovementioned negatives, give this spin-off a read.

Thank you so much Pansing for sending me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review! Forging Silver into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer is available at all good bookstores.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Ableism, Sexual content, Torture, and Death

Minor: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Vomit, Death of parent, Animal death, and Blood