Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

115 reviews

thefightinside's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative mysterious reflective 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

4.5

A beautiful exploration into misogyny and LGBT+ humans

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, and Classism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal death and Confinement

josieruby1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

emilily's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.0

While this book is far from perfect (the pacing is a bit off, and there are certainly a few plot holes), it is generally a fun read. This reminagined telling of Cinderella centres queer teens, and makes some important (and tragically still relevant) critiques of the patriarchy and blind acceptance of historical narratives. One of the better YA reinventions of Cinderella. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

bookbaddie85's review

adventurous reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.25

I first want to thank my friend Larry Bolton for purchasing this book for me for my birth month celebrations!!

Content/ Trigger Warnings:

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship (teen girls are chosen for marriage by older men at a ball), Domestic abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault (non-consensual kissing), Violence

Minor: Kidnapping 

Mood: 

adventurous, dark, mysterious, hopeful, inspiring, emotional, and tense 

Pace: Medium

Recommendation: This book was recommended by Amandabb on YouTube. I love Amanda and her videoes on YouTube, and her show recommendations have never failed me. All of this is to say her taste in books is now tainted by her love and raving of this book for me.  

Expectations: The book said it was going to give me LGBTQIA+, it was going to give me diverse POC, it was going to give me shocking, it’s going to give me surprise, and that it was going to give me drama. The book gave me barely any of those things. Also to the person who compared this to the hunger games, your moms a hoe. 

Characters: 

• Sophia: I strongly disliked Sophia,and it was because she was as bland as rock soup. She is the main character in our book, and I can’t tell you a single thing about her beside the fact that she hates society. To be fair, I can see why, but I wanted more from her. Katniss hated her society, but we got to see complexity from her. This fell flat.
• Luke: A round of applause for the fan favorite, because he gave me life almost every time he was on the page. He was honestly the only character who I enjoyed, Liv was cute and in second place. I want a whole book about Luke and his secret boy lover, and I want it to end in him creating a secret society of gays who married each other as a beard plan while they also planned to take down the king. 
• Erin: She annoyed me, but also I could see where she was coming from. Erin was in an abusive relationship, and that relationship was society. She like many others way just going through the motions of life. She told Sophia that she didn’t want to be with her, and Sophia didn’t accept that.
• Manford: I saw a piece of paper today and it had more dimension than this character did. I mean he was the big bad, and apparently he was the root of all that was wrong in society. He wasn’t threatening in the least. I wanted to see him kill people. I wanted Game of Thrones level murder, but alas I didn’t even get a percentage of that. He just locked people in rooms and assaulted them with his rank breath.

 

• Amina: She was completely unnecessary, and her presence in this book was confusing. She was playing both sides and it didn’t make any sense at all. The surprise that she was charming mother did absolutely nothing for me. She spewed some good lines, but she left much to be desired. 
• Constance: I wrote this whole review and almost didn’t notice that I didn’t write about this character. That’s how little I cared about her. She didn’t do much, but be there as a rebound. 

Word building: This was so weak. My goodness it made me want to cry. The magic system was never explained. It was told that there were other magical people and we never saw it at all. The king was evil just to be evil, and every man apparently just jumped at that chance to be abusive and sexist. 

Chemistry: There was no chemistry between Sophia and Erin or Constance and Sophia. It was like I was being gaslit into thinking the romance was there and it was not. It takes longer for ramen to cook than it did for Sophia to get over Erin and fall in love with Constance. I would’ve preferred a, I’m throw myself under you to get over the other person than them claiming it was love. 

Other Problems: The writing was elementary at times. The book was giving beautiful gowns, but that was all. The book was beating me over the head with it’s point to where I felt like it was an episode of Dora telling me where the clues were. The author wanted to speak on the topic of misogyny and homophobia and she didn’t say much of anything. How can 300+ pages of a book say so little. I was so confused if Amina wanted Charming to die, because if not, she didn’t have to show up at the end. It was like she was spoon feeding the main two things about how to defeat Manford while also not wanting them to defeat him. 

• The book is around the length that I like my books to be, but it was slow then rushed to accomplish everything.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Death, Homophobia, Violence, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

quinn24's review

adventurous emotional 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? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Blood, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, and Homophobia

antinanco's review

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Murder, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Blood, Grief, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Cursing, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Confinement, Homophobia, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

shushkeepitdown's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

The way it's written feels more for a younger audience but it has themes which are not suitable for them. Overall a good read and made me feel hopeful a bit. Plot twist was satisfying even if I expected it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Alcohol

bookcrushin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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

Really loved this dark retelling and all the woven bits of the classic story as key plot points. also the queer storyline and the smashing the patriarchy message was stellar!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

kayladaila's review

adventurous dark inspiring 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual violence, Slavery, and Trafficking