Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters

13 reviews

sunnithereader's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Violence, and Murder

whewtaewoon's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Violence, Murder, and Death

Minor: Gore, Suicide, Physical abuse, and Rape

mediocremasen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Great premise, interesting characters, fun setting/world, boring execution.
I had so much hope for this book and it just fell flat. I was so bored for the first half of the book, maybe more.
It felt like stuff was always happening but none of it really matters. It felt like the entire first half was setting the stage for the book instead of actually being the story.
The characters were also a bit inconsistent and I think if she had committed to making them a bit more sinister like some of their actions showed, it would have been very compelling.
Shifts in the story and in the characters were very abrupt. There wasn't a lot of transition from point A to point B on several different things, it was just suddenly it changed with no real build up of any kind so it didn't really feel satisfying either.
Not a bad book, just a lot of lost potential.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Physical abuse, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Grief, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Confinement, and Alcohol

Minor: Blood

b_lownds127's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

2.75

I didn't realize this was YA at first, but once I did I continued because I do often enjoy YA fantasy and this has a really intriguing plot and premise. Where it started to fall apart for me was the over-the-top southern breathiness of the narrator for Della and then the incredibly annoying character of Natasha. The character of Natasha was, like many heroines, driven by vengeance and unwilling to accept any facts that didn't fit into her own perceptions and theories but she was ALSO so easily misslead by red herrings that I as the reader figured out the entire mystery and villain by 50% and just felt as if I was waiting around for the characters to catch up. There were also 3 passages that felt not so much like dialogue but as if they had been lifted, stiff and protesting, from a Wikipedia article on missing and murdered women. Please don't misunderstand me - the author was valiantly trying to talk about important things, but the overall effect did not feel organic within the novel. The romance was a bit too insta-love for me too, though i adored the LGTBQIA+ representation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

4.25

Delightfully eerie horror novel with sapphic romance.

CW: murder, abusive relationship, misogyny, serial killer

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Confinement

clovelatte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Stalking

check those content warnings but also wow this book is powerful. Idk if you have to be a little girl who plays in the woods and makes nasty brews from the forest floor who grows up to be an wrathful feminist to truly appreciate it but if that’s you just go ahead and inhale this book.

lipstickitotheman's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.5

I enjoyed listening to this. I really liked Della's voice actor! The story was engaging, interesting, and felt new. It wasn't always easy to get back into after taking a pause, but I never actually regretted it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Kidnapping, Classism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Alcoholism, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

corriejn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Witchy, magic-laden young adult mystery fiction. It's hard to say too much about this book without spoilers, but it's a creative and engaging book for the genre.

A few non-spoiler-y notes: the LGBTQIA+ tag is not inappropriate for this book, but I will say that some of the earlier introductions of queer characters felt a bit self-conscious/gratuitous. By that I mean going out of the way to establish queer identities of characters in ways that didn't seem natural as part of conversations in the narrative, and felt more like pointing out those identities to tick a representation box than presenting characters naturally as whoever they were (i.e., them presented matter-of-factly in the ways they went about their lives and relationships). (Same with race; there is a Black character among the supporting roles, but that does not seem to a real/impactful part of the character's identity and life, but mentioned occasionally to remind the reader of the fact.) This is all still well ahead of books that treat all characters as white/cis/het by default, of course, but there are also books (including within YA fiction) that handle diversity better.

Another theme that felt a tad ineptly handled (again, without any major spoilers here) was one of the main character's pasts, as a child who was adopted later in childhood. The descriptions of the character's feelings about/relationship to their biological parents and adoptive family read as a bit trite and simplistic. Representation of a variety of life experiences is great, but again this was not dealt with with the greatest nuance or depth/complexity of characters (indeed, the adoptive family/said character's relationship to them get only the briefest of coverage).

All that being said, I'm still rating this 4.5 because for the genre/intended audience the inclusion of various identities and life experiences is still a plus and may not have been encountered in a lot of other fiction texts, even if they could have been more skillfully addressed. This remains an engaging and creative book (though do check the substantial CWs if any of those are a concern), and a recommended read for late-teen to adult readers. (The positive aspects of the story are more difficult to outline with plot spoilers!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Murder, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, Classism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, and Vomit

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Lesbophobia, Addiction, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Outing, Biphobia, Racism, and Trafficking

kitausu's review against another edition

Dnf at 20% 

I really wanted to like this, but I just was not having a good time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Violence, Sexism, Murder, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Addiction

spiritedfaraway's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Stalking, Racism, Police brutality, and Panic attacks/disorders