Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

8 reviews

morganish's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

The Familiar is hard to fit into a genre, because it's too magical to be purely historical fiction. And it's dark, but it's not exactly horror? I'm gonna go ahead and designate a new genre of my own making that this fits into, along with several other books I've read this year like Lone Women and Vampires of El Norte: the Dark Fantasy Historical. 

What Worked For Me

The Historical Setting: Similar to the other books I mentioned, the best thing about this book is that it takes a hyperspecific look at a historical time and place, one which I know very little or nothing about, and centers it. In this case, the book is set in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition; with a focus on the Jewish-Spanish experience. That was by far the most engaging part of the book for me. With as much vague cultural knowledge as there is floating around about the Spanish Inquisition, reading this was illuminating, and made me realize how very little I actually know about Spanish history or this particular period.

The Characterization: I expected this story to be a little bit more straightforward in its depictions of good guys versus villains, but this one kept me guessing. Not every character gets what a reader might think they deserve, but its done in an interesting way that always kept me surprised. It felt a bit more truly adult for that. And in a way that's hard to describe, feels a little bit more like escapism for me personally, when I'm kept guessing and things aren't all predictable.

The Prose: The writing wasn't distractingly flowery, but there were moments of writing that felt beautiful and timeless. The writing style felt a little bit like it was leaning toward and influenced by fairy tales at times, and the last few paragraphs solidified that in a way that was really emotionally impactful for me. 

What Wasn't My Thing

The Distance From Characters: The downside to that narrative style is that sometimes I felt like there was an emotional separation between me and the characters. Which probably worked when it came to writing about some of the grislier things that happen in the story But made it harder to connect to them and get truly invested.

The Romance: I think that, because the story was a little removed emotionally, and because it's more historical, the romance didn't really work for me here. Especially because it followed a certain kind of trope which kind of seems like it's been done a lot (maybe that's just my age speaking). It almost felt like the writing decided it could skip big parts of the characters getting to know or fall for each other. The downside of that, for me as a slow-burn fan, is that it all felt really fast and I wasn't invested enough when I think the story expected me to be. 

Who This Is For

I think this is going to appeal to historical fiction readers who don't mind a hint of dark fantasy. And for fantasy readers who like the more fairy tale-esque/YA style of stories and are okay with it having much darker, more adult elements. Existing fans of Leigh Bardugo's gritty underdog/outsider characters, dark worldbuilding & magic systems, and gothic-inspired romances would like this, even though the writing style, subject matter, and pacing felt very different from her usual. 

My Personal Rating System

Still shying away from wanting to rate books like a product; it's not my place to say if a story deserves to exist, and I firmly believe 99% of all art has a place and an audience who needs it. Following my personal rating system just to show how much I personally connected with a given book:

5 stars: I got so invested that it's definitely on my agenda to read other books by this author
4 stars: I would be excited to read another book by this author, but it's not a priority
3 stars: don't plan to read more by this author, but if assigned for a book club, I'd be cool with it
2 stars: don't plan to read more by this author, & if assigned for a book club, I'd be like, ugh, ok, fine
1 star: I will never pick up a book by this author again if I can help it (usually due to overt bigotry)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, and Torture

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Gore, Misogyny, Infidelity, Slavery, Infertility, Grief, Sexual content, Bullying, Colonisation, and Death of parent

aseel_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I don't really know how I feel about this? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry and Torture

Moderate: Antisemitism, Physical abuse, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Violence, Sexual violence, Death, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

sillyhumantricks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Antisemitism, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Racism, Mental illness, Slavery, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Torture and Violence

frmeden's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? N/A

4.5

picture me reading the ending on the bus with my heart in my fucking throat

leigh bardugooo you have so much talent, it felt like spain was honestly a whole other character in this book and so much love and care was given to every character, no matter how minor, that i was deeply invested in how each of their stories wrapped up

doesn’t quite join the ranks of six of crows but they’re not really the same story so probably incomparable? but it wrapped up so bittersweet and final and lovely. i liked this a lot

santángel you will always be famous and sexy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, and Body horror

Moderate: Death of parent and Sexual violence

riththewarluid's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed The Familiar quite a bit, but I would not call it Bardugo’s best work. She shines in world building and historical research, which comes through in this book, but for me there was a disjunct between that historical world building and the effect this world had on the main characters. They felt like they were existing in this lush world but not being truly affected by it in any way. I’m think in particular about how religious belief features in the world and is presented as an important facet of the main characters identity but it never seems to really come to any conclusion and even seems to drop off in importance with no explanation. So while I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it for people interested in a dark alternate history set in the Spanish Inquisition, don’t go into this expecting very much character development from the main two characters; also the romance is extremely rushed and not really fleshed out or explored at all, and that was disappointing. The two main characters are so different and complicated and difficult and I wanted so much more from their relationship. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Violence, Murder, Torture, and Death

Moderate: Sexual violence and Sexual content

soniajoy98's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Classism, Religious bigotry, Murder, Antisemitism, Abandonment, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Sexism

Moderate: Mental illness, Torture, Gore, Islamophobia, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcohol, Sexual violence, Grief, Biphobia, Ableism, Confinement, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Infertility, and War

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, and Confinement

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Abandonment, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy, Vomit, Antisemitism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Terminal illness, War, Outing, Homophobia, and Rape

magpiereading's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Fantastic. 

I feel like I overuse the word lush but I really mean it this time! The jewels! The velvet! The feasts! A similar premise, on its face, to Shadow and Bone  (a woman of seemingly little importance and value is foisted out of poverty by a mysterious powerful figure and she has to quickly determine which of the new, powerful people around her mean to harm, help, or manipulate her) but that’s about it. I had to pace myself because I knew it was going to be good and once I finished I’d have to wait however many years for her next book

the ending didn’t fully make sense to me, I lost track of how this magic worked to save them both and break the curse but I don’t care because I would have lost my mind if the ending wasn’t HEA

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Sexual violence