Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Cress by Marissa Meyer

21 reviews

agiraffereads's review

adventurous funny inspiring 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Confinement, and Trafficking

Minor: Forced institutionalization

noellegrace8's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

The plot really saves this one for me. It's gotten so intricate at this point that it's impossible not to enjoy it! The epitome of a great storyline. So good. But I am going to rant about one piece that bothered me, but not enough to affect my rating much:

While I love Thorne SO much, and understand Cress and her lack of social interaction and therefore knowledge even if I personally find her to be a little exhausting, the *way* their romance is written really irks me. It's entirely limmerance from Cress and nothing from Thorne until random moments. These random moments are thrilling, with scenes written better than even Cinder+Kai or Scarlet+Wolf, but they're not enough to make up for the underlying underdevelopment of their actual romance throughout the rest of the book. The entirety of them crashing in the desert fell flat for me. My personal "I hate the miscommunication trope!" is, "I hate the 'I don't want to hurt her' trope!" And that's (sort of? It's unclear, and therefore infuriating, at times) what we're given from Thorne.

Hoping the 4th book quickly clears up the limmerance from Cress and intermittent apathy from Thorne. It's a WONDERFUL series.

I don't factor audiobook performance into my star ratings, but I would give Rebecca Soler a 4.5/5. At this point, I've gotten very used to her narration and voicing. As previously stated, she can be a bit too flat at times or have a tone that isn't quite right for what's described, but she's generally good at differentiating voices in scenes with accents and tones. I really like the way she voices Iko haha. It's perfect for that android! I don't understand why Soler wasn't asked to re-record a couple places where she says "kAY-toe" instead of "kEYE-toe" though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, and War

Moderate: Kidnapping, Medical content, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Murder, Child abuse, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Ableism, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Blood, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Torture

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Trafficking

As this series is very political and based around a clear power imbalance, the things I sorted into "Graphic" are fundamental in this book. "Moderate" listings have mostly to do with plotpoints such as the classic Rapunzel-and-her-abusive-guardian retelling, the events that led to Cinder's current cyborg state, Thorne losing his vision, the tortured nature of Wolf/ his genetic alterations, and the general tension between Lunars and Earthens. "Minor" labels are due to Scarlet and Cress both being taken (separate contexts), the push and pull between most of the relationships in this series thus far (but particularly Wolf+Scarlet), and our brief encounter with Princess Winter. Lastly, the only reason I warned of adult-minor relationship is because I believe most of the male love interests in this series are quite a few years older than their female, teen counterparts. More importantly, Cress is said to be 16, and Thorne is most definitely an adult, likely about 20 (has served in the military and is a well-known criminal at this point) so... a bit gray.

kneecole's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Trafficking

melissaslibraryy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted sad 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 was more of a 4.8⭐️ simply bc Cress wasn’t my favorite of the female characters but I still enjoyed getting to know her and her backstory. Her naivety and awkward social skills made me cringe even though I understood that she grew up in solitude so ofc her social cues were out of whack, but seeing them happen was still 😵‍💫 Regardless, I love that we’re getting closer to defeating Queen Levana especially since Kai is now involved in the action. Looking forward to reading the next book :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Classism, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, War, Child abuse, Confinement, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Police brutality, and Torture

Minor: Trafficking

momloves2read's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Trafficking

good_names_dont_exist's review

adventurous 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Trafficking

Moderate: Violence, Torture, Medical content, War, and Death of parent

Minor: Gun violence, Suicide, and Blood

val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Torture, Trafficking, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence and Blood

roget's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma, Violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Trafficking

jeannis's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Torture, Death of parent, Blood, and Death

gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review

adventurous fast-paced

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

4.25

Still loving the reread of this series. There was some key events that I had forgotten about since my first read through. Those events did take me by surprise, so it was enjoyable to be surprised or caught off guard with a reread.

I cannot wait to get to the last book and finish the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Trafficking