Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

30 reviews

maeverose's review

2.5

Disclaimer: I am very much an adult and not the target audience

I wanted to read this after hearing someone talk about the third book being a response to jk rowling’s bigotry, and from people calling it a non-problematic version of harry potter. I expected something better… it felt like hp fanfiction at times, and this first book at least had some minor bigotry of it’s own. Not as bad as the hp books but still…

Here were all the harry potter similarities I noticed:

Morrigan has an abusive family that doesn’t care about her
Said abusive family gifted her a terrible christmas present once
The over-the-top magical world vs the normie world
Jupiter reminded me a lot of dumbledore if he were young
The trials
Very ron-like best friend
Very draco-like antagonist
The Halloween and Christmas celebrations
villain who’s name scares people
Disfigured (slightly) villain
Villain who mysteriously disappeared due to being weakened by a fight
Villain who kindly waited until after the trials to make his move
Shadowy creatures coming after Morrigan (even once while they were stopped on a train…)

It has the ’bitchy preppy girl rival who hates the female mc for literally no reason’ trope. It has the withholding of information from the mc for no real reason trope. I’m not sure how I feel about the only two Black characters (one with the last name ‘Blackburn’) initially being bullies (also for no reason), even if they did both come around in the end. It was just an odd choice. And the whole ‘Jack faking a disability’ thing was also odd. It obviously was kind of resolved in the end but the whole ‘faking a disability’ idea is a bit questionable. A lot of actual disabled people get accused of faking their disability for one reason or another and that being in the book the way that it was just rubs me the wrong way. This is very very minor but at one point a character says ‘he or she’ instead of ‘they’ and that will never not be annoying to me. I’m also left feeling like the world wasn’t explained very well. It’s probably explained more in later books, but I feel like the first book should give you a decent idea of the world and I still have a lot of questions.

I was bored and mildly annoyed the whole book pretty much. I wanted to read it in full so I could form a full opinion on it in comparison to harry potter, but I don’t know if it’s worth it to continue in the series just for that. This might’ve put me in a reading slump.

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kirstym25's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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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writteninmagic's review

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

I thought this was an okay read for a fantasy middle-grade book. I don't typically read middle-grade books, but I decided to give this one a try. I didn't start reading it with any high expectations, nor did I compare it with other stories, so maybe that's why I liked the story more. I liked the odd mentor that was Jupiter and the magical Hotel Deucalion, especially its multi-scented smoke room and constantly changing guest rooms.

The world of Nevermoor was interesting, but it did lack the feeling of being magical at times. I wished the world and places were described more. Some places and some characters were described while others weren't. There were some details that didn't make sense (and were maybe overlooked in the editing phase?), like when Jupiter is first described. He's not described as wearing a hat, but then he's suddenly talking about still wearing his hat. Another instance is when Cadence uses her power to lie at the end of the Chase Trial. There's a scene change, and Fen, who could've easily resolved the issue, is suddenly nowhere to be seen and isn't able to defend Morrigan? And wouldn't the competition judges have known which candidate entered with which animal, since they did all register right before the event?

While the storyline was predictable, I still enjoyed it for the most part. I'm interested to see how the series continues to unfold, so I do plan to read the next book.

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amylynn44's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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amaramorgenstern's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Eignet sich definitiv zum nochmals Hören. Die Sprecherin ist einfach perfekt. Ein richtiges Comfort Hörbuch. Das Buch ist allgemein super empfehlenswert. Die Geschichte ist super süß und vermittelt auch gute Werte. Für 10-14 Jährige am Besten

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