Reviews tagging 'Torture'

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

12 reviews

litliz's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gaslighting, Bullying, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Infidelity, Misogyny, Torture, Incest, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexism, and Suicide

hshoue's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, and Murder

penofpossibilities's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Classism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Miscarriage, Abortion, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Murder, Suicide, and Torture

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Genocide, Infertility, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Vomit

lokes's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

1.25

This was… well, is was something. 
The worldbuilding was a bit sloppy, but interesting, but plot and characters? Icky. Like, really bad. 

Not only did it have tropes such as forced marriage and hints of pedophilia (as soon as the guy was always called a “man with his big hands; like a father; etc” and the woman described as “girl with small hands; being generally very young and clueless and in need of constant help”) I had a bad feeling and boy wasn’t I wrong. 

I don’t know why so many people like a book which is filled with sexism, weird stereotypes, classism, racism and basically everything you don’t want to read about when it is normalized (or rather being glorified, because you just couldn’t catch a break when reading. It just kept coming)

I do feel like I need to apologize to the person I am now that I read this book because it wasn’t pleasant and I feel like I need to unlearn all of the very harmful stuff I just read about. 

The writing style’s not bad though, I could have liked it without the weird content. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Incest, Miscarriage, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Blood, Child abuse, Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Death of parent, and Confinement

snickahz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Torture, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Police brutality

Minor: Incest and Sexual harassment

thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This was just fine. The world building is cool but I’m not particularly drawn to the characters or romance. The narrator of the audiobook did a great job. I’m not interested enough to continue probably but if I do I’ll continue with the audio. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Bullying

Moderate: Suicide

bialves's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Slavery, Violence, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Alcohol, Classism, Hate crime, and Miscarriage

tmcphetridge4's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

It took me almost 3 years to finish this book. It was quite a lengthy one and I kept returning it to the library with very little progress. I finally decided that enough was enough and that I should finish it off. The book was molasses slow. It has a pretty interesting magic system with lots of political and societal intrigue, but it was very tense with hatred between characters. Nearly downright torturous. That being said, I am intrigued to read the second book. I know the novels only get lengthier, but I want to know how much further the protagonist gets in the den of wolves. Or should I say dragons? The one thing that is really dragging me down is the somewhat incestuous relationship between the aunt and her family spirit. How does that even work?

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Pregnancy

Minor: Incest

Not entirely sure if the -incest- tag is correct, cause it is an ancient family spirit? But it feels like incest.

annikareads_'s review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Death, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Torture

stllyltc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

5.0

It's an easy read and the world building is also easy to follow, from the prologue till the next chapters, how the metaphors are used is essential and pleasing when it evokes a play to create the figment world. This is really more plot driven and if you're looking for romance it's basically just a sublot since Book One focuses on introducing how the system functions and the characters which serve a purpose throughout the story. I'm excited to read the second book and want to see more of Gail and Mother Hildegarde, even some of Ophelia's siblings. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Torture, and Violence