Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Ruinsong by Julia Ember

7 reviews

venti's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.75

just eh 

also i thought the social commentary of a rebellion for the oppressed upper class was a little funny. like this would be far more interesting if it was from elene’s pov and/or was the story of how she overthrew the government to torture rich people. pure comedy 

also the tulip at the end feels like a sequel hook but if it isn’t it feels weirdly reductive to the whole conclusion of the story? like i got the vibe it was from

elene and was to show she still had her powers and could potentially be evil again (ooh scary) but like why did we need that? the story was fine with her just being in prison. we could gather from the idea that the expelled mages using magic that she had a possibility to use magic again, that was already established, and cadence literally says so herself. so the tulip feels a little unnecessary to me.

maybe i’m reading too much into it tho lol. also the romance was boring 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Torture, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Lesbophobia

Minor: Child death, Ableism, and Terminal illness

eclectic_hellscape's review

fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Violence, Fatphobia, Gore, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Child abuse, Classism, Torture, Death, War, Animal death, Vomit, Bullying, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abortion, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Minor: Alcohol

owlieali's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Blood, and Torture

Moderate: War

Minor: Homophobia

sarah984's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I thought this was a really fun idea for a story, and the singing magic was cool. Everything was tense and the stakes felt high. Most of the characters were interesting.

However, the characters we spend our time focused on are probably the least interesting of the bunch. They spend a lot of time complaining and making impulsive decisions (and then complaining that people don't trust them not to make impulsive decisions) and you only kind of hear about other characters doing cool things in the background. The ending wraps up extremely fast so a lot of the victories don't really feel earned. I get the idea of noting every character’s skintone instead of making special note of who wasn't white, but it really drove home how white the core cast still was so I don't know if it helped.

Also this is a nitpick but if you're retelling Phantom of the Opera and you drop ZERO chandeliers? You're doing it wrong.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Abortion, Death of parent, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Sexual content

starccato's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Gore, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Stalking

Minor: Abortion, Confinement, Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Body shaming, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

RUINSONG is a slow burn sapphic tale of falling in love under brutality, and daring to hope for a better future even after being groomed into complicity. The opening chapters are brutal, slowly but inexorably describing a reign of death and torture in which a powerful queen demands complicity and service in exchange for life. The plot is at least 90% slowly inching towards maybe doing something concrete about it while an ever escalating series of discomforts befall the main characters, then the ending is very dramatic and sudden. I refer it to a series of discomforts because the worst stuff happens around Cadence rather than to her (very early on bad things happen to Remi and then keep happening). There's a sense (usually backed up by dramatic asides and tales of woe) that much worse things are constantly happening somewhere to somebody, but since they aren't literally happening to Cadence she's been reluctant to try and change things. I don't have a great sense of what the revolutionaries want other than to not be tortured and killed by the Queen (this is, admittedly, a very sound basis for a revolution so it's okay that other demands aren't a focus of the narrative). I think that I personally prefer books with more specific political intrigue with their revolutions, but that's not what this book is trying to be. The romance is slow burn, since Remi and Cadence don't feel free to do much of anything, let alone broach the topic of being girls who like girls. It barely feels safe for them to be friends, since Remi's very proximity is being used to control Cadence. 

The worldbuilding is fine, it's not very complicated because the story invests its detail in the Queen and the two girls, and the people around them. One thing this portrays very well is emotional abuse and manipulation, and the way that a combination of threats plus unpredictable enforcement can be used to break someone down and make everything feel pointless. The story is about whether Cadence will finally have something that it's worth standing up for, and I appreciate how the story shows why she didn't fight for things before. Even if her reasons seem silly or you can imagine yourself doing more in her shoes (some of her fellow characters think they might have done more), the characterization is so well done to explain why she hadn't before, but without excusing what she's done and continues to do. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Homophobia, and Vomit

Minor: Abortion and Death of parent

mushr00mcore's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.0

At least the sapphic romance was handled well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Homophobia