Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

63 reviews

fabmom_24's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Torture

bri_reads9's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Rape, Torture, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty

emilycfox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad 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: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Extremely abusive father, extreme gaslighting

how_sweet_the_sound's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-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

This is one of my all-time favorite books and has been since middle school. It’s the story of a young queen bringing literacy back to her kingdom despite the push back she receives from all angles. There are multiple over-arching mysteries to be solved and the plot develops like no other book I’ve read. The characters have so many pieces to them that I feel are unique and purposeful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

caitander's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This one is a lot darker than the other ones in the series so far. It deals with really intense topics surrounding the characters trauma and is very political. There’s a lot of discovery happening in this story, both about information and being lied to and Bitterblue’s discovery of herself. I enjoyed her journey and seeing how her strength in this book reflects back to her experiences in Graceling. The world is so rich and it’s so interesting to learn more about

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

qrschulte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

AHHHH! I didn’t want to put this down! I just NEEDED to know all the secrets! And there were some very lovable secondary characters added ❤️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Gore, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War

guessgreenleaf's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Self harm, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

bri_morgan's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, and Blood

imds's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

shinysylveon's review

mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

1.75

If I were to break down the structure of this book into 6 parts, for me this amounted to 1 part mystery, 1 part romance, 1 part self-discovery, and 3 parts epilogue for Graceling and Fire.

The entire premise of this book is Bitterblue navigating being Queen in the aftermath of her father’s tyrannical reign. How do you rule a kingdom where everyone is suffering from PTSD?

On paper, the concept seems cool. Instead of just a paragraph or a few pages summarizing “what happened after”, you get a full book. The problem with that is it’s boring. It felt like there was too much happening and therefore nothing got the focus it really deserved. But on that same note, it also felt like nothing was really happening? It’s very bizarre to describe. 

It just didn’t feel like Bitterblue’s book, or her story. It felt like an epilogue to Katsa’s and Leck’s story. It felt like a side character fumbling around trying to figure out how to be a main character, while the actual main character is off having another adventure. Bitterblue was more intriguing as a child in Graceling, and even in the flashbacks than she is in present day. 

Po was still fun in this for the most part. Katsa, however, was extremely annoying and immature. Though to be fair, immaturity is part of her character, it is just more acutely apparent without the aid of her internal monologue cushioning it. It also didn’t help that the Audiobook narrator gave her this weird Scottish accent that no one else has and that Katsa didn’t have in the original audiobook.

This was definitely riding off the coattails of the other two books. The parts about Leck and discovering all the horrible things he did were extremely interesting. Everything else? Meh. My original rating of 3 stars was super generous, changing it to 2 (which is still generous). Here’s hoping the next one is better. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting