Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

51 reviews

bnelson13's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

This book is fantastic! I loved the plot and the characters. Immanuelle was a great protagonist and I loved her journey. This book was so hard to put down.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Violence, War, Cursing, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Child death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Torture

schohayes's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? No

4.25

I really liked this book! It was a bit of a departure from what I would normally read but it was fascinating and riveting. Loved the main character and everything she stood for. DOWN WITH THE PATRIARCHY AMIRITE!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse

kayla_kamldecker's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

The ending was a bit cheesy, but otherwise a fantastic book full of darkness, blood, horror, and feminism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny

Moderate: Rape, Racial slurs, and Racism

emily_journals's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.5

Ok, first off, the premise of this book is so intriguing to me. I was so invested in the premise and first 2/3 of this book, but the last 1/3 of this book really missed the mark for me. Without going into too much detail, the second guessing of the town and church's true motives is built up throughout the whole first 2/3 of the book, and then kind of abandoned and not truly fulfilled at the end of the book. Overall, this book was just really disappointing to me. When I picked it up, I was so excited and eager to dig down to the bottom of the mystery and learning about all these secrets towards the beginning of the book was so exciting, but the resolution was such a let down on all of the points the book seemed to be attempting to make. 

Ok, now for some spoiler specific review comments to explain the above points:

1.) So, the entire beginning of the book was all about how Immanuelle was sort of discovering these issues and prejudices within the church, and also her discovering the "true story" behind the origins of Bethel and the story of the three witches. The beginning of this book was really building up how the men who run this town were not good people, and would deliberately hurt women and people with less power who tried to stand up against them, and applying that to the witches, BUT THEN you discover that the witches really were just completely evil and wanted to kill everyone and are still trying to destroy the town and EVERYONE in it (not just the manipulative men), which almost entirely negates the point that this book seems to be trying to make. 
2.) The mom issue was never resolved. Immanuelle's mom supposedly was consorting with these three witch spirits to curse the entire town (not just the people who caused all of her pain). Immanuelle goes through all of these steps and discoveries that her mom essentially used her as a conduit to bring the curse to the town (which is also why only Immanuelle can stop it), and that her mom left Immanuelle to just become only this thing to carry the curse. However, when Immanuelle goes and finds her grandma (dad's mom) who left Bethel, she says that Immanuelle's mom was so over protective of Immanuelle even before she was born, and how excited she was to have her baby and how she would never reduce Immanuelle to essentially an object to carry out the curse. But this thread is never resolved. It just is left dangling, and the only resolution we get is that Immanuelle's mom really did just use Immanuelle to deliver this curse? Which again, reduces the point this book is making by having this woman who is betrayed and hurt by all the men in power in Bethel reduce her own child to an object (which is what this book seems to be trying to protest, the objectification of women and how the men of Bethel think that they can do whatever they want with these women).  
3.) There is kind of a "white savior" ending. Not fully, but there are little bits and pieces of it with the love interest (white boy) saving Immanuelle multiple times at the end, so that she can then save the town. I don't think it's a full white savior, but the fact that he needed to save Immanuelle at all was a little irksome, as it is proven throughout the whole book that Immanuelle is very capable on her own, so I thought it was a little frustrating that the author did this when we, the audience, know it's not needed.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual violence, Death, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Death of parent

kkulhannie's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Child abuse, Body horror, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Child death, and Animal death

Minor: War, Suicidal thoughts, and Forced institutionalization

massivepizzacrust's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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? No

4.5

I was a little apprehensive going into this one because honestly I'm a huge wuss when it comes to horror and I was afraid this would be too much. And while there is some horror, it mostly comes from the people wielding power they should never have had and the violence they inflict to keep that power. In a way this was an empowering read and once I understood that I completely devoured the rest of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, and Pedophilia

Minor: Rape and Sexual violence

notastate's review against another edition

dark medium-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

3.75

Oof this book had me HOOKED. The tags/themes that are listed on here are very accurate- this book is not for the faint of heart. While there were times when it was confusing, I enjoyed reading this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, Murder, Grief, Gore, Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, and Adult/minor relationship

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Torture

Moderate: Self harm

melsmagicalreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Sexism, Misogyny, Gore, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Death, and Death of parent

This book contains multiple traumatic childbirth scenes.

literatigeek's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, Racism, Torture, and Physical abuse

Minor: Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault