Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

68 reviews

haalborg's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Violence, Torture, and Death

a_dara_ble's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

It was so good I didn't even really notice how long of a book it was. If you want strong female characters that are all equally great and different, while also being extremely flawed, often wrong, and sometimes unbelievably (and rightly) angry, this is the book for you.
It's been weeks and I still think about this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abortion, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Homophobia, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Slavery, Medical trauma, Racism, Sexual content, and Torture

booksbutmakeitgay's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, Kidnapping, Sexism, Violence, Bullying, Fatphobia, and Transphobia

chalkletters's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

I wasn't expecting much from The Once and Future Witches; I only gave The Factory Witches of Lowell three stars, and this seemed like such a similar idea that I was surprised book club would add it to our list when we'd already experienced exactly this subgenre. I was absolutely wrong, The Once and Future Witches is up there with The Goblin Emperor and An Accident of Stars as one of the best books we've read.

Despite being a lover of fantasy novels, magic systems aren't that important to me. The distinctions between hard and soft, rules-light and rules-heavy rarely influence how I feel about a book. But I absolutely loved what Alix E Harrow did with the magic in The Once and Future Witches, because it's all based in reality, but given a clever and literary twist. Spells are hidden in nursery rhymes and stories, and so many of them begin with familiar words. Similarly, Alix E Harrow takes familiar concepts and weaves them into her world in a way that delighted and surprised me every time. 

In a similar way, the prose was full of clever twists and references and beautiful sentences that I loved. While the style seems simple, it's also very clever, building in references and allusions that will become more important later. I'm sure The Once and Future Witches would be a joy to reread! 

While the magic reminded me of Chocolat, the world-building shows a greater divergence from reality, something more akin to Dread Nation. I loved that so many of the significant historical and mythological figures were female versions of those found in our world: Alexandra Pope, Queen Midas, to name just two. It made me wonder if reading this feels a little like being a man in our world, where so many important figures affirm your gender. The Once and Future Witches is an explicitly feminist book, though Alix E Harrow does flesh out positive male characters just as well. 

Which brings me on to the characters, who I adored. Even though the Eastwood Sisters, and many of the others, were built on archetypes, they were incredibly well-drawn and developed. Of course, as a reader and reviewer of books, not to mention a notebook enthusiast, I loved (Beatrice) Bella the librarian and note-keeper, but Agnes' story was just as compelling, maybe even more so. To round out the three witches, I should also say that I cried harder in Juniper's chapters than I think I have in any book I've read for book club. The ending of The Once and Future Witchesis powerful and deeply sad, but not a total tragedy. 

I have absolutely nothing bad to say, which doesn't happen often. And for once, I haven't struggled to articulate all the things I loved about The Once and Future Witches. Fingers crossed I'm just as able to string my thoughts together at book club.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexism, Violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Blood, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Racism

nebulasaurus's review against another edition

dark hopeful informative inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Torture, Cursing, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

faduma's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Misogyny, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Racism, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment

jaynovara's review

adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Cursing, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Religious bigotry, Alcohol, and Racism

cjcrawfish's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Emotional abuse

Minor: Racism, Torture, and Homophobia

ehmannky's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

I am always incredibly hesitant to start this book because it felt like "witches and the suffrage movement" was a kind of proposed plot that would go real fast into white girlboss feminism. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. There's way more witchcraft than suffrage, and even when we do dip into suffrage Harrow takes care to include women of color, poor women, and immigrants and how their lives are worse than the white, middle class characters of the book. Like, when a very minor Native character tells one of the white leads that their knowledge is not for them I was so delighted. I loved the story of three sisters mending their lives and struggling for a better world, and the two romance subplots are well-integrated. Each of the sisters has a great character arc and I loved the ending. 

My main qualm came from Harrow changing a bunch of male authors to women (like, the Brothers Grimm become the Sisters Grimm or for some reason Dante's Inferno is about a witch who walks through hell). I don't know, it felt out of place in a world that is filled with the same misogyny as our own to have all of these women authors. I felt it would have been more thematically fitting to just have spent the time focusing on women writing in books or other marginalia than just being like "oh, it was Charlotte Perrault, not Charles Perrault who wrote these fairy tales!" I do have to admit that every single time Harrow did this I rolled my eyes because it just seemed silly and so out of place with the rest of her world. But other than this, I thought it was great and it surpassed my expectations. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Murder, Violence, Sexism, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent and Misogyny

Minor: Slavery, Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Racism, and Emotional abuse

laisai's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Child abuse, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Racism, Lesbophobia, Forced institutionalization, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Abandonment, Abortion, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Grief, Physical abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexism, Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia