Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Wicked Remain by Laura Pohl

12 reviews

lil_ducky25's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.5

They could’ve done a better climax.

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fallandfox's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In this sequel of Grimrose Academia, the fairy-tale deaths continue and the girls embark on their journey to break the curse once and for all before they end up dead. After the three girls discovered the truth about what is happening, they need to discover why it is happening. Together with this, each one of them has their secrets to deal with and the dark destiny that one of them now has in her hands. 
When I finally could start this reading, I was excited after discovering it was a sequel.
The sensation of finalizing the book was so satisfactory and, at the same time, I wanted to reread it to enjoy the clues in the book.

I had now the opportunity to read the author's writing, and I can say she did an amazing job describing the scenery and a better one in the character and relationship development.

I was happy for the romantic couple's development, but at the same time, I was grateful for certain characters finishing the books without one.

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lesseraliterary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.0

this was good but the middle dragged so it felt a little long 😵‍💫

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bookedandbusy's review

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dark 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

This was a great sequel and way to end the series! I loved it! 

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hollyk's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Some things this book did well:
-representation
-Anxiety rep
Things this book did not do well:
-literally everything else
Pacing: this book was so lopsided. There is absolutely nothing happening for the first 2/3 of the book, and when, in the final 1/3 mind you, there finally is action, it makes absolutely no sense. The curse made no sense. And while it could be argued that the first 2/3 were meant to be character driven, the point of character driven arcs is to have some form of character development. There was none to be found. The curse didn't feel very urgent considering 4 months pass within the first 2 sections of the book, and then we're led to believe everything else happens within 2 weeks max?? No.

The curse isn't well explained, and also how/why it was broken was confusing as well. Also, 
Where was all the magic before? We've seen absolutely no sign of magic outside of Yuki, and now we're to believe that all the teachers and the headmistress have been witches all along?


The character arcs in this book were okay with the exception of Yuki and Ella, though the latter less so. Suddenly Yuki has turned into Bad Cinderella Snow White and is on a villain arc, but she showed no signs of this thinking in the first book and it just came out of nowhere. Also her obsession with Ella? Where was that in the first book? Also Ella suddenly being in love with Yuki?? This came out of nowhere to me as well, and kind of undermined the friendship conquering all message. I just absolutely hated pretty much everyone. No one was interesting, no one was compelling really, and overall it felt hasty. 

The villains felt like the author tried to subvert the
evil stepmother
trope, and then, when she realized that there would be no villain, shoehorned the villains in with no foreshadowing in the slightest. 

The more I write the angrier I get. I thought the first one was just okay, but this one just did not do it for me.

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thewoodlandbookshelf's review

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adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.25


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jackiepreston's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5


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thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

3.75


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dbogen47's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

3.75

I’m glad I finished the series I love the world I’m a sucker for boarding school stories. I think the romances were sweet and I think the lore of the curse was somewhat well done. I think there are still some things that needed clarifying (see spoilers). Also I think the comparisons to TV teen dramas are really warranted. Some of the dialogue really is giving teen melodrama. Also some of the characters motivations were unclear at times. And I think it’s inevitable with four perspectives that you will play favorites and unfortunately mine was Rory who definitely got the least amount of chapters. But it still was a fun read though!
it’s not clear to me how Yuki survived because Ella “believes.” And I think too many objects got involved to follow

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melaniereadsbooks's review

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adventurous dark 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

4.5

Thank you to SourceBooks Fire and Netgalley for an arc of this book.

In the sequel to The Grimrose Girls, things are even more tense at Grimrose Academie as Yuki, Ella, Rory, and Nani deal with the fallout of Penelope's death and try to solve the mystery of the curse that is trapping them in fairytale retellings and killing off girls left and right.

This was so good! I loved everything about it. The entire time I was thinking about Midnights by Taylor Swift and trying to figure out which song works for each. I got one for every girl but the two that felt the most right to me was Anti-Hero for Yuki and You're on Your Own, Kid for Ella. They feel so right for both these girls and their character arcs.

This was great! I'm glad we got some more of Rory and Nani in this one. Such a great duology and definitely recommend for those Dark Academia vibes!

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