Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

33 reviews

aexileigh's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Trafficking

makenna_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Pedophilia, and War

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Abandonment, and Alcohol

karcitis's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Excrement, Death of parent, Outing, and Classism

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

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

fairy_internet's review against another edition

challenging hopeful inspiring sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Homophobia, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Classism

laramlr_05's review

adventurous dark reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Abandonment

michellemaas's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad 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

2.0

This book only deserved 2 stars (meaning it was okay), but the romance between Sophia and Constance was so good that it almost deserved a star all on its own.

In terms of this being a fairytale retelling, I will give props to Kalynn Bayron in saying that the premise was quite creative, but the execution ended up lacking. My biggest caveat is that I found the story dragging along often, especially in the beginning (keep in mind that this is a relatively short book, with my version having only been 299 pages). When your short book isn't fast-faced it is a recipe for disaster. 

Another problem I had was with the foreshadowing being so heavy-handed. I can appreciate the author focusing on certain aspects so that big developments don't seem to come out of anywhere, especially when you are setting up a big plot twist at the end, but I feel that it was written so obviously that the ending lacked some of the impact it was aiming for.

The last thing I want to mention is the representation. I haven't seen many fantasy books with LGBTQ+ characters as the leads and that aspect was beautifully done. Sophia and Constance were just so perfect and had me fangirling since their first encounter. I also enjoyed the parallels of Erin and Constance since it is a parallel a lot of queer people have to deal with. Some more representation comes from our lead, Sophia, being a person of color. Again, I don't find that many books come out and say: My lead is a POC and I'm proud of that (it's always "olive-skinned") so I thought that was cool.

Ultimately I would recommend you read this because the representation is something else and it's important to support stories/authors with representation, but if you're just reading it for the plot you might be disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

cherrygray's review

boring, predictable, didnt interest me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Gore and Abandonment

luna_is_superior's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

Amazing book that explores hard hitting current issues like misogyny and domestic abuse, it showcases tyranny, injustice and oppression and how they're overcome. Beautiful feminist literature which sets a great example for young girls/women.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment