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cas_reads_anything's review against another edition
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
lindag25's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
For me, a three star review has met the following qualifications:
• The book has a clear beginning, middle, and end.
• I didn’t hate reading/listening.
That’s basically it.
It’s just kinda - meh.
Was it bad? No. But was it good? Also, no.
Will I recommend it to others? Maybe?? If you’re looking for a very specific trope or vibe, some people might enjoy it. I’m just not one of those.
Honestly, this book kind of confused me on who the intended audience is supposed to be. It reads veryyy YA. The romance is basically two barely adults having their first crush and some sloppy making out at the end. That’s it.
However, this book deals with some pretty heavy themes.
***TRIGGER WARNING:
Animal suffering/harm/death ON PAGE.
Parental psychological/emotional abuse of a child ON PAGE
Physical abuse of a child ON PAGE
***SPOILER WARNING***
The FMC is tasked with mindlessly killing animals practically her entire life. Her father forces her to kill animals because she’s able to absorb their essence/powers into her own magic. She starts by being conditioned to kill tiny insects as a very young child - her father rewards her with cupcakes for killing bugs. This gradually grows to rodents, birds, then A KITTEN, and eventually large predators like a bear, jaguar, and wolves.
For a lot of people, death and harm of animals is a major trigger. Had I known it was a main theme of this book, I probably would have skipped it.
Then there’s the child abuse/grooming/conditioning aspect of this plot that basically gets no real attention in the story. FMC loves her father despite all of the horrible things he’s done and has made her do. There’s no real exploration into how this has affected her long term or any healing from a literal life time of trauma. Ick.
There’s also an orphanage/school where children are literally tortured. Literally. They have secret torture chambers hidden away where they strap children down and do gods know what until the children are screaming in pain and submission. They’re also forced to strap rocks and boulders to their ankles and walk around 24/7 as punishment for disobeying or talking back. The older children are even tasked with assigning these punishments to the younger children. It’s really f’d up.
So yeah, maybe you see why I have a hard time believing this is YA or even New Adult. It’s dark. It’s mentally hard to digest.
The loose, fluffy plot of saving the realm just isn’t really worth all of the icky dark triggers to me.
• The book has a clear beginning, middle, and end.
• I didn’t hate reading/listening.
That’s basically it.
It’s just kinda - meh.
Was it bad? No. But was it good? Also, no.
Will I recommend it to others? Maybe?? If you’re looking for a very specific trope or vibe, some people might enjoy it. I’m just not one of those.
Honestly, this book kind of confused me on who the intended audience is supposed to be. It reads veryyy YA. The romance is basically two barely adults having their first crush and some sloppy making out at the end. That’s it.
However, this book deals with some pretty heavy themes.
***TRIGGER WARNING:
Animal suffering/harm/death ON PAGE.
Parental psychological/emotional abuse of a child ON PAGE
Physical abuse of a child ON PAGE
***SPOILER WARNING***
The FMC is tasked with mindlessly killing animals practically her entire life. Her father forces her to kill animals because she’s able to absorb their essence/powers into her own magic. She starts by being conditioned to kill tiny insects as a very young child - her father rewards her with cupcakes for killing bugs. This gradually grows to rodents, birds, then A KITTEN, and eventually large predators like a bear, jaguar, and wolves.
For a lot of people, death and harm of animals is a major trigger. Had I known it was a main theme of this book, I probably would have skipped it.
Then there’s the child abuse/grooming/conditioning aspect of this plot that basically gets no real attention in the story. FMC loves her father despite all of the horrible things he’s done and has made her do. There’s no real exploration into how this has affected her long term or any healing from a literal life time of trauma. Ick.
There’s also an orphanage/school where children are literally tortured. Literally. They have secret torture chambers hidden away where they strap children down and do gods know what until the children are screaming in pain and submission. They’re also forced to strap rocks and boulders to their ankles and walk around 24/7 as punishment for disobeying or talking back. The older children are even tasked with assigning these punishments to the younger children. It’s really f’d up.
So yeah, maybe you see why I have a hard time believing this is YA or even New Adult. It’s dark. It’s mentally hard to digest.
The loose, fluffy plot of saving the realm just isn’t really worth all of the icky dark triggers to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship
clemireads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail