Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

11 reviews

e_claire's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Slavery

Minor: Domestic abuse, Car accident, and Child death

hybridhavoc's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

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

3.0

I find myself kind of genuinely surprised at the amount of praise that has been showered on this book. About halfway through the book I was willing to write off a lot of the issues I had with it as being the result of a first-time author. Unfortunately that is not the case.

My largest issue with the book is that the author seems very taken with their magic system and everything else seems to mostly be in service to that. Most of the characters seem flat and inconsistent; knowledge of the world is info-dumped on us very abruptly; dialogue is often to-the-point in a way that feels incredibly unnatural and isn't even necessary. Sometimes the book just skips over what should be important dialogue. Need to convince this character to betray their own family? "He told her only what she needed to hear." That's not a conversation, that's a cop-out.

I know that the trend for modern fantasy is all about hard magic systems, and it seems like that is maybe where the love for this book comes from. After all, it does have what seems to be a clever magic system. I hesitate to call it a hard magic system though, as there are almost no actual details provided, and very little in the way of hard boundaries set. That makes sense, given that the magic system is basically programming, and when you're programming reality there aren't many boundaries beyond your knowledge and imagination. But by its very nature, then, I can't view this as a hard magic system. There is no point at which the author can't simply say "Sure they're in a pickle right now, but what's this? They just got cleverer and came up with a new bit of programming."

I think the part of the book that had me eye-rolling the hardest has to be the villains. They are absolute caricatures, the flattest of flat characters. I suspect that this, at least, gets better in future books in the series. But I honestly can't know for certain because almost none of the characters are consistent in this book.

There is more positive than negative in Foundryside, but I don't think there's enough positive for me to keep going with the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, Misogyny, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Classism and War

Minor: Slavery, Sexual assault, Rape, Infidelity, and Domestic abuse

It's basically The Matrix in a fantasy setting.

bakezori's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery and Torture

Minor: Domestic abuse

iforgotilivedhere's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I loved this book! It was so so good but I had problems near the end.

Near the end whenever Sancia and her crew are trying to get the imperiat and Clef back, we had a whole section of them just going over scientific and boring shit that could of been easily summarized in a paragraph or just a page.

 
That was really my only problem. I’m so exited to see how Sancia and Berenice’s relationship grows. I’m so exited for some good sapphic romance!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Torture, Blood, Body horror, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Alcohol, Sexual content, and Sexism

Minor: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Classism, Cursing, and Bullying

kassidyreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, and Slavery

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Misogyny, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, War, Sexual assault, Confinement, and Torture

sonovahades's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

this took me so long to get into but hell it was so worthy. i can't wait for the second book to arrive to the library so i can read more.

also yay for the (so far) minor wlw relationship! it felt a bit forced at first but im glad it's here, better than any other character being a love interest.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Slavery

Minor: Domestic abuse

queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Sexual assault, Violence, and Slavery

Minor: Body horror, Car accident, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Violence

mandkips's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Misogyny and Confinement

Minor: Domestic abuse

cuppa_curiositea's review against another edition

I was unable to finish this book after a character said that a building would be as "open as a schoolgirl's legs." Completely unnecessary and disgusting. This wasn't the first extremely misogynistic description that popped up, but this is the one that drew the line for me. Not to mention, the other instances that bothered me were primarily spoken about or by a villain character, but this one was spoken by one of the main characters. Neither the plot, characters, nor writing were interesting enough for me to look past this to keep reading. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Sexual content

fromjuliereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious 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

I FREAKING LOVED THIS BOOK. Wow. I am so surprised. I had no idea what to fully expect going into this book but did it DELIVER! Fantastic characters, great world building, epic heists, a unique and complex magic system, and I went through ALL of the emotions! I am not even kidding. I teared up multiple times, was on the edge of my seat with stress, smiled like an idiot, and laughed out loud. This is my kind of book through and through.
It starts out slower because there is so much that has to be set up in the initial chapters and first section of the book. But goodness, is it worth it for the vast wealth of story that you get farther in.

I stand by it that Clef is my favourite character. But I have such an immense appreciation fo Sancia, Gregor, Berenice, and even Orso! All of the characrers are developed so well, and they all have some kind of arc and growth throughout the story.
The heists are EPIC and the twists and turns? Goodness I was on the edge of my seat... figuratively. But this was so good. I am really looking forward to seeing where else this series goes! (If my heart can take it that is...)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Gore, Grief, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Vomit