Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

115 reviews

laineydunne's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

proudtobeabookaholic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

Cinderella is long since dead, but not her story. Every girl has to recite it every day, from when they're tiny until the ball when they have the chance of being chosen as wife to a man. But Sophia doesn't want to be chosen by a man. She's in love with Erin, but that's not acceptable. Sophia tries to prompt Erin to run away with her before the ball, but Erin wants them to abide by the King's laws - no matter how unfair they are. Sophia refuses to give up, but to resist the King may lead to death...

A delightful and different twist of Cinderella! The crown approved version of the story is actually pretty far from the truth. With it the King has gathered unprecedented power of the people and anyone trying to oppose is punished with death. It's mostly women who suffer under the King's laws, and it's clear they're considered less valuable than men. It's really frustrating to read, especially when we know there are women suffering like this in some parts of the world, even today. Sophia refuses to accept this, but I wouldn't call her a classic heroine. She's afraid and doesn't quite know what to do, but she's still intent on making a change. At the beginning she's alone, but then she meets Constance, a descendant of one of Cinderella's step sisters. She's got the real story about Cinderella, the ball and Prince Charming, and together they plan to overthrow the King. 

I enjoyed this book very much and I was always eager to pick it up and continue reading again! I like that the main character is a black, gay woman; it's a great contrast to the original story. I also appreciate that Sophia is very human, and someone who eventually can't stand the life she's meant to live. She decides that she and every other woman is worth more. A strong feministic message! I definitely want to read more by Kalynn Bayron!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse

pkc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious tense 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? No

5.0

I bought this on a bit of a whim in 2021 thinking “why not indulge in another subversion of the Cinderella fairytale?” but I guess…like there’s no other subversion worth consuming. This is it. 

Holy crap I LOVED this story.

The protagonist was so engaging, so strong but proudly showed her vulnerabilities. The villain made my skin crawl. The love interests were fully formed characters in their own right who didn’t just serve to enhance the protagonists story. Representation was incredible (a POC MC, very queer).

Around the tail end of last year, I saw someone do a list of reading icks that they’d hope might be left in 2022. One of them was adults reading young adult books, as if it was somehow a lower class of read that shouldn’t be indulged. It really rankled me when I saw it as a 33 year old lover of YA and books like this beautifully explain why. 

This a story, aimed at young adults, that is absolutely about using your voice to speak out against oppression. It’s not the manic pixie dreamgirl or feelingsy guy that you find in the stereotypes that the genre is wrongly thought to comprise of exclusively. 

Sophia is a strong, ferocious human being who is guided by and intently focused on the right thing to do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

wynnie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Suicide, and Trafficking

Far darker than you would initially think, quite a lot of mentions of triggering topics. Sexual violence against women is talked about frequently.

anabookadventures's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

luciameetsbooks's review

adventurous funny mysterious relaxing medium-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

3.5

i'm so sad i didn't love this book 😭

i enjoyed reading it because of the world-building, the magical elements, the references to fairy tales, it was all very interesting and unique. at the same time there is reference to assault, domestic abuse and homophobia which made the story a lot deeper and made me connect more closely with the characters. trigger warnings though if you don't feel comfortable reading that.

the problem was that i guessed the main plot twist at the beginning of the book because it's a pretty common thing in books/movies and i also really didn't like the romance.

this is a sapphic romance so already my thing, and i really liked the girls individually but their paring is just off. they fall for each other without really getting to know each other first and our mc internal monologue made me dislike the paring even more because she would get distracted by the love interest's beauty while something super important was happening (enough times that i realized it was a pattern). it was so frustrating to read, like we get it you like her but

you literally just found the body of a person that died 200 years ago and its ghost is talking to you, can you concentrate pleaseeeee???

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Physical abuse

paigem4rrie's review

adventurous challenging emotional fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Classism

Moderate: Death

Minor: Body horror and Violence

saskiahill's review against another edition

fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

bookswithlauren's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

I enjoy books that take our classic fairytales and twist them, look at them from a different perspective and weave an entirely different story. I particularly enjoy how Kalynn Bayron explores how much of a negative impact fairytales can have on a society, something I have often thought about. 

We are fed these stories about lives, people, how they do and should live, from a very young age. When, in reality, they are idealistic, narrow minded and unrealistic. Not every girl is going to grow up to find and marry the man of her dreams, have children and live a perfect life she loves as a home maker. But these stories don't show us any diversity or inclusion of any kind. Children learn from fairytales and I don't think our typical fairytales are teaching anything useful and I love the way Kalynn explores this in Cinderella is Dead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

a_sleepy_berry's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism