Reviews tagging 'Outing'

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

53 reviews

anderska1011's review

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Outing

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury

seashel's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

A wonderful husbands-to-friends-to-lovers 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Hate crime, Sexism, Medical content, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Torture, Transphobia, Abandonment, and Classism

gondorgirl's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, Cursing, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, and Alcohol

booksmoke_kitty's review

emotional funny 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: Homophobia, Rape, Self harm, and Outing

kathyq10's review

emotional hopeful mysterious 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? No

4.0

Overall I enjoyed this read a lot. The relationship between Cae and Vel is so sweet and lovely. The development is well written and a delicious slow burn, so much so that when they first HUG it feels huge and incredibly intimate. In turn their first kiss and first other things are a culmination of all that steamy and emotional buildup, plus healthy communication!! Gasp! The worldbuilding is well done in terms of the creative gender and sexuality norms—super refreshing in fantasy novels that are usually very binary—but I found the magic system a bit boring, underdeveloped, and underutilized. I thought this book was going to be a fantasy, but the magic feels like an afterthought and only really comes up as a plot point (rather conveniently) towards the end. The more fantastical element is really the progressive society, and I would’ve been just as happy without the magic at all. 
As for negatives, the pace was slooooow. The bulk of the book takes place over like a week and a LOT happens each day. The characters acknowledge the density of the action, though, which makes it a bit better I guess. I just wanted it to move along at a faster clip. But then the solving of the mystery, reveal of the big baddie, and the consequences to them all happen pretty quickly and didn’t resolve in a satisfying way to me. I don’t think it did justice to the complexities of that character’s motivations. I cared much more about the main romantic relationship, Cae’s and Vel’s relationships with their respective close friends, and character development overall than the plot or the intrigue, so I honestly skipped some of the parts where they were bouncing around the town trying to solve the mystery of it all. 
MAJOR CW for sexual violence and attempted suicide right from the very beginning of the book. The author puts this in a CW at the start but I didn’t expect it all to happen quite so fast. As the author says, though, it is a story about healing from the initial trauma. 
Finally shoutout to MARKEL, Vel’s bestie and the absolute best supporting character. Markel is an icon and a messy bitch and I hope we get more of him in the sequel. His friendship with Vel was the second best part of the book; I love to see an unselfconscious portrayal of male friendship and intimacy. Plus the integration of the fact that he speaks sign language felt very natural and something I’ve never seen in a fantasy novel like this before. 
Thank you Foz!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Outing

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

bespectacled_lemur's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Outing, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

ajenkies4's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-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

5.0

I'd give this 6 stars if I could. My only (very small) grievance is the inconsistent narrative perspective (Vel gets first person, Cae gets third person). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Homophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

breadbees's review

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

cheye13's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

I credit this book with reminding me how magical reading can be. This book itself may not be my favorite book ever, but the author automatically leapt to "one of my favorites" status. I will be hunting down everything else they've written.

The worldbuilding was exquisite – nearly tangible. I could easily slip into someone else's story in this universe and that's one of my favorite elements of the fantasy genre. I also loved that not only were politics involved, but they were intrinsic to the core plot of the story. The characters were all so well-rounded, and using a main character in a foreign land as a reader-proxy to introduce everyone was genius. And above all, I loved the writing style. It was chronically readable, but also flowed between gravitas and levity, evocative of whatever mood the scene called for. I'm getting emotional thinking about just how fun simply the act of reading this book was.

Unfortunately, this still isn't my favorite book. The author kindly includes accurate content warnings, and while I think everything was handled well and with care, part of the rape and recovery storyline didn't gel with my reading experience. Unlike many other fantasy stories, I entirely understand why the scene of the assault was included, and I actually appreciate the story including Vel's journey of healing. I think I was mostly put off by

the rapist character's constant return and the amount of plot he carried. While I appreciate Vel getting closure, I would rather his ex not have been on-page so much.

. I also found the plot resolution a little rote and villian-monologue-y, focusing on wrapping up every loose end, when by that time, I was much more invested in the romance than the politics.

But still, overall a complete pleasure to read. I absolutely recommend it for curing slumps, despite the page count.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Outing

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Transphobia, Stalking, and Abandonment

vagaybond's review

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Xenophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cursing

Rape is one of the first scenes in the book. This scene is stumbled upon by someone else and the protagonist (the victim in the scene) is outed and exiled from his family and homeland because of it. The protagonist has 2 suicide attempts, the second because he fears rape.