Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The Gifts That Bind Us by Caroline O'Donoghue

27 reviews

josb's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Decided to read this one because I wanted something to pull me in and the first book had no problem doing that. Despite this one mostly focusing on the Children of Brigid slowly taking over the town, I found it was not as tough a read as I was expecting. Yes there are scenes of homophobia, gender policing, and slut shaming, but there is also a big problem the characters are trying to solve while they try to avoid the "scary" cultists. There are scenes where they have to interact with the cultists, but the reader is not subjected to unnecessary awful descriptions just for the sake of it. 

This book in the series is very "dark forest" where our characters are not okay after the events from the first book and are trying to piece themselves together. Note that there is mention and descriptions of self harm. 

I appreciated that the author went with a 3 book series, I can't imagine squishing all of this content into a duology. The end of this book got me really excited for book 3 so the setup was certainly there. There are certainly enough reveals in this second book that I don't feel it was too stretched out. 

If you like darker YA's I highly recommend. The worldbuilding is interesting enough and the chapters are written in a way that hooks you and makes you curious to continue. Unfortunately, the "big bads" are complete pricks and manifest themselves as hard core old testament Christians which means there can be triggering content for some readers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

Moderate: Transphobia, Self harm, Homophobia, and Deadnaming

caitlinjohnson's review against another edition

mysterious 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

3.5

i loved seeing lily and maeve grow close again and to see the glimpses into their friendship before the events of book 1.

even when they argued, they all sounded like real teenagers because they didn't have their whole argument planned and just went off emotion. in some books, authors have a tendency to make their teen characters seem way younger or way older than they actually are so it was refreshing to read teenagers that sounded like teenagers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry

canopicfemme's review against another edition

5.0

this was soooo fiona made me miserable and maeve continues to be just like me fr

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Transphobia, Death, and Sexual content

Minor: Deadnaming

smartie_5748's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

const_elle_ations's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Death, Deadnaming, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content

grets_reads's review

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Self harm, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

alabiblioheck's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Transphobia

Moderate: Religious bigotry and Body horror

theunfinishedbookshelf's review

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death and Transphobia

bookish_paws's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia

Minor: Deadnaming

queergoth_reads's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-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

This book was soo good. I really loved the first one but this one really got into some of the things that were bugging me in first one. The characters are very well written in my opinion (sometimes annoyingly so but they are 16/17 so it makes sense). I really loved the discussion of pronouns and gender and the witchy plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Deadnaming and Transphobia