Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

28 reviews

toffishay's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense 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? No

3.75

A really intense, sweeping epic of war built on history and distrust and racial/ethnic injustice. I appreciated how the author handled this subject matter and some scenes were too real that I wondered if I would be able to keep reading. I love Evike, but I think that I also maybe would have enjoyed Gaspars point of view in a few chapters. Overall, really awesome read though. The recommendation from Samantha Shannon is very apt; if you like Priory of the Orange Tree, you would enjoy this as well, I think.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Hate crime, Animal death, War, Physical abuse, Grief, Blood, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Self harm, Misogyny, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Murder, Gore, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Antisemitism, Death, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Body horror, and Torture

Minor: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Child death

dainybernstein's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.5

The premise of the book is good, but the execution is lacking. When I looked up the author and saw she studied ethnonationalism and religion, it all made sense. This is an intellectually sound story-experiment, but the characters' changes in emotion are abrupt and don't fully make sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Classism, Colonisation, Genocide, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Death, Gore, Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, and Violence

Minor: War

bookleafcrow's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

i read this back in september and i really enjoyed it, the ending fell a little flat for me but i loved evike and gaspar individually and together, and the magic system and world-building is stunning

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Ableism, Religious bigotry, Murder, Blood, Grief, Colonisation, and Body horror

tahsintries's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Bullying

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Racism, Blood, Grief, Child abuse, Colonisation, Hate crime, and Genocide

saurahsaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Confinement, Death, Gore, Racism, Violence, Animal death, Colonisation, Antisemitism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Child abuse, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Abandonment, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Murder, Body horror, Grief, and Sexual content

Minor: Infidelity and War

r_a_bell's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

The perfect example of what a stand-alone should be! You get all of the story of a trilogy in one book. The beginning journey did seem a little pointless in the end, and I kind of wish it had been a bit shorter if it wasn’t really going to go anywhere. However, it was still enjoyable to read and didn’t feel unnecessarily drawn out. I love how realistic it was its depiction of social structures and relationships, especially in regard to religion. I also really liked the end! It didn’t wrap everything up in a neat little bow just because that’s what the author thought readers would want. The ending was realistic and true to the story, yet satisfying, and it left that little kernel of hope that everything would end up as a “happily ever after.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Violence, Body horror, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Sexual content, Hate crime, Misogyny, Torture, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Antisemitism

darkefyres's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad 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: Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Blood, Antisemitism, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Murder, Death of parent, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Genocide

Minor: War

gemma_clare's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.0

The pacing in this drove me mad and made me really struggle to finish it, which is sad because it had so much potential. I enjoyed the characters and would have enjoyed the plot if it was more consistent, but it felt like it was jumping all over the place and like the end goal of the book changed 5-6 times. I liked the conflict between religions and comparisons to real history, but found some of the lore either confusing, or boring and shallow. The writing style was nice. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Genocide, Physical abuse, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Abandonment, Grief, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Blood, Child abuse, Gore, Classism, and Emotional abuse

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Body horror, Animal cruelty, Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Bullying, Animal death, Xenophobia, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Kidnapping, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Sexual content, War, Vomit, Child abuse, and Genocide

baroo92's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This story was a really cool idea, and there's a lot of very excellent pieces included in it! I'm definitely here for diversifying slavic-inspired fantasy, and the depiction of multiple different ethnic sub-groups within the main country's setting was awesome to learn about. I will say though that it is pretty noticeable that this is a debut novel. There are some distinct pacing issues- in several moments, I found myself having to go back and re-read through a previous page to be sure I didn't miss a mention of a particular character moving or doing a particular action in the scene. There were spots where I was deeply invested in an intense scene, and then a character would say a dramatic line, and then BOOM- end of chapter, moving on to the next chapter with a completely unrelated scene and barely any dialogue explaining the aftermath of said dramatic line. I really wanted to be attached to the characters, but with the scenes jumping around so much the characters' motivations also jumped around, which made it hard for me to root for them in their Big Goals. There was just a lot of spots of Big Scary Thing Happens, I'm Ruined Forever and then another side character appears and Nevermind, My Problem Is Fixed With A Wave Of A Hand And We're Moving To The Next Problem Without Blinking Twice About Previous Issue. 
I will probably still look out for Ava Reid's future work, because I think she definitely has a lot of potential in storytelling! I just wish she could flesh out her scenes in a little better to keep our eyes on the prize.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Sexual content, Torture, and Domestic abuse