Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber

17 reviews

amre23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Violence, Murder, Gore, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Grief, and Body horror

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Blood, Abandonment, War, Stalking, Gaslighting, Classism, Physical abuse, and Infidelity

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

kefredriksen's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

Even though this is a 2nd book in a series, it was better than the first! I couldn't put it down, the characters are delightfully complicated, and the ending had me screaming. Easily a fav in this genre!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Moderate: Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, and Blood

Minor: Confinement, Stalking, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

3.75

I didn't like it as much as the first one, but that doesn't negate the fact that it was still interesting. I don't know if it's just her books, but for some reason for me it's when I read her books I don't fully get into it until the later parts. But it might be on me because I've only read two and I'm just now getting back into fantasy. It was interesting enough to keep me going but nothing really immersing to me. I kept wanting to hit Evangeline for being too trusting, too quickly. It's cool how consistent Stephanie keeps Jacks character. The ending was crazy. Glad there's gonna be a third book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Gaslighting and Medical content

jen1804's review

adventurous dark sad 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

4.25

I very much enjoyed this book. I think there’s still quite a few holes which need filling and the writing style itself is still quite YA with short sentences. Sometimes I find that Evangeline’s thoughts and actions can feel innocent and feeble and I feel myself shoot back to picturing her as just a girl when I want to picture her as a woman. But having said that I do think this book ventured into darker and more grown-up territory in the best ways whilst remaining in YA status. I felt I was able to imagine the characters as older, ✨hotter✨, and a bit more well established than what I imagined in the first book. There’s more flirting, more skin to skin contact, and more ✨feelings✨in this book which I am so here for. I also enjoyed Evangeline’s character more in this book, I felt like she was just better and had a little bit more summin’ summin’ about her, though still needs a bit more development in my opinion. I’m obsessed with Jacks’ character, ugh, I love. Though he has gold hair in this book rather than his midnight blue from book one which I ✨struggled✨ with.
The plot is decent, it kept me engaged, there’s a quest vibe to it which I liked. We get lots of answers in this book but as I said earlier it also opens up lots of unanswered questions and leaves behind holes. Various plot points happen in the story which we just don’t seem to hear about again and I find that annoying. I’m really hoping all the loose ends get tied up in book three as I would be very appreciative of that.
The ending was great and Jacks’ decision of how to use the stones made my little heart extremely happy. The whole thing was left on a cliffhanger which I’m always a sucker for so I enjoyed that a lot!
Overall it was a great read, I just think in terms of writing style, narrative depth and character development I don’t get how so many people give this a 5 star rating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Murder and Torture

Minor: Death of parent and Gaslighting

fiercereadsfiction's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Blood and Death

kbairbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This was a hard read for me. Not in the way I read it because I did consume it quickly. There’s a whimsy to Stephanie’s writing that is a person with synesthesias dream. But while it’s not described as such her books are horrors. Maybe a fantasy horror but damn dude. The gaslighting and terrible relationships? The betrayal and secrets? The freaking ending? I wanna know what happens after this but I’m also afraid. This book is easily very triggering for DV victims or someone such as myself that has trauma surrounding men. Ugh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Grief, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

katvou's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief and Violence

Minor: Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Child death, Torture, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual content, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury