Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft

51 reviews

lanid's review

adventurous dark reflective

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Religious bigotry, Gore, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Death, Hate crime, and Panic attacks/disorders

chichisode's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

didn't expect it to have those types of scenes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Bullying, Gore, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Religious bigotry, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Classism, Body horror, and Alcohol

neni's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

The thing I liked the most about this book was the writing and the imagery. The autumn woods and mysterious sea side town vibes were great, and the writing was quite beautiful and evocative, especially when the author described environments. The character's were okay, I didn't love them, but I didn't hate them, they were a bit cliché in their tropes, but I enjoyed the development of the main character's response to her family trauma, namely in the way she finally recognized her toxic relationship with her mother. Wes was very sweet as a love interest.
I loved Trouble the hound, especially because my own dear dog is of the same breed so I kept picturing her in the book :) 
The pacing was a bit all over the place. The first third of the book felt slow and like nothing was happening, the middle was satisfying in that we finally had some progress in both the plot and the relationship between the main character's, but then the ending, while entertaining, was a bit rushed and left quite a few issues that had been brought up either unresolved or fixed so quickly it didn't feel believable.
I must say as well: the fact that the whole character's main thing was being a huntress and loving it, didn't sit quite well with me as I don't agree with hunting for sport. The descriptions of fox killing as a sport (both the magical/mythical type and the plain normal animal) bothered me.
Overall, this was an okay read, especially vibesy for autumn and with some good romance and pining in the middle but not particularly strong either in plot or character complexity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Bullying, Gore, Grief, Racism, Death, Abandonment, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Body horror, Child abuse, and Violence

aformeracceleratedreader's review

adventurous slow-paced

3.5

This book reminded me a lot of Full Metal Alchemist, but I didn't like this as much as FMA.

the main FMA similarity outside of alchemy, is the fact that Margaret's mom wanted to bring back Margs dead brother with the philosopher stone like how Ed and Al tried bringing back their mom

. I thought this book was quite slow and I was waiting for the hunt to begin. I expected more action along with the romance that also grew. When the hunt actually started, everything went by too quick with the conflict with Jaime and the take down of the hala. I did enjoy the romance side of it since I did like Wes, Margaret, and Wes' family. And I liked how Margaret grew as a character although I'm not the biggest fan of "a dude's love is the thing that you needed to fix/save you" all the time.
I'm also not a fan of white, raised Christian people writing about marginalized people when they haven't had those experiences. I know the author is LGBT+ and probably has faced prejudice because of it, but the discrimination and oppression one experiences based on religion and race/ethnicity is quite different. I don't like white authors saying that racial and religious minorities need to take the high road to be better than their oppressors like what has been illustrated in this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Violence, Xenophobia, Bullying, Child death, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, Alcohol, Animal death, Antisemitism, Classism, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Religious bigotry

lujisa's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Bullying, and Hate crime

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Religious bigotry

thecourtofreading's review

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

why did this feel like it was wuthering heights inspired, despite me not having read wuthering heights. maybe it’s the artwork on the cover i fully thought the boy looked like healthcliff. 

anyway, this book did start off a little slow, but allison saft definitely knows how to create delicate settings and atmospheres and it was very vivid and enticing. the alchemy was a really interesting magic system alongside the halla. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Sexual content

annierose's review

adventurous emotional 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

4.25

I'm surprised at how much I liked this little book. Going into it, I thought it would just be another YA fantasy and in a way it is – the main focus is the budding romance between the two protagonists, Margaret and Weston, and in places I found myself wishing some of the world building and magic system (or alchemy, in this case) would be a tad bit more detailed. Especially placing the book in a certain period felt a little difficult for me. Even though this is a fictional world I got a little confused when I discovered there were things like cars, radios, iceboxes, and condoms etc. in a setting I'd assumed to be Victorian-ish at first, but then, there was no mention of TVs and cellphones... so I'm still a little unclear in this aspect.

However, the slowburn, the pining and the playful banter hit the right spot for me and I found myself turning the pages, eager for more interactions between the two leads. Maggie and Wes do feel like real people with their desires and dreams and anxieties, so it's easy to get invested in their blooming relationships and their vastly different family dynamics. And despite the story including some more mature themes like xenophobia, religious bigotry, emotional abuse, and child abandonment that have the characters going through complex emotions, the sweet romance at the centre of it makes the story feel light-hearted and addictive to read. And sometimes that's all you need from a book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Child abuse

Minor: Sexual content

campisforever's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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? No

3.75

I’ve labeled this one with several content warnings. One of the major points of this book surrounds fantasy-setting correlates to antisemitism and xenophobia. The story centers on a hunt, thus the animal cruelty, and the plot deals with parental abandonment, gaslighting, emotional manipulation, etc. One MC experiences clearly described dissociative episodes as a result of trauma. The book is good, yes, but it does describe these things—including the hate crime, which only stops short of naming the actual slurs scrawled into a floor. One character in particular is a voice piece for bigoted, racist sentiments. Take care of yourselves, please. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Racism, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, and Xenophobia

meliroo's review

dark

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Racism, Blood, Bullying, Gore, and Hate crime

katievallin's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Violence, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism

Minor: Child death, Colonisation, and Death of parent