Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

26 reviews

savshanae's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

If “Labour” by Paris Paloma was a book, this would be it. To be frank, I was enraged for most of it. I don’t even know if I would really recommend this book to someone, unless they were looking to be so full of feminine outrage they wanted to burst into flames. But if that is what you want, this book is it. 
The writing was emotional and painted vivid pictures (it was also wordy). Sometimes repetitive, but I think it adds to the story by the end. 
The self-expression and ideas that it inspired are challenging and thought provoking, and I really enjoyed that it is written to feel like you are being TOLD a story, someone’s thoughts and life experiences. 
This book made me very angry, made me cry (lots), made me want to stop reading it. But it’s definitely worth the read and the rage. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Chronic illness, Classism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Bullying, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Blood, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Minor: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

scarlett_f's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Death, Grief, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, and Outing

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Biphobia, and Addiction

Minor: Sexual content, Cursing, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Panic attacks/disorders

joayenne's review

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Infuriating. Overwhelming. Blazing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

romy91's review against another edition

funny lighthearted reflective 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

4.5

A fun and interesting concept. Addresses some interesting concepts around gender and civil rights. FMC sometimes challenging as she is a child for a good chunk of the book and is somewhat unreliable, but becomes clearer as she ages.

*minor spoiler*




Particularly enjoyed the moment when the dragon woman commented that the only reason she didn’t eat her abusive husband was because she wanted to save herself the indigestion!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Cancer, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Death of parent

mamaewalk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

4.5

Creative, unique, and utterly badass story. Reads like a memoir. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Misogyny

Minor: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, Fire/Fire injury, and Panic attacks/disorders

jewels_pg's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Prose and yet in places it read like poetry. Felt like I could step into the world, or that I could see it here in ours. Heartwarming and sad and beautiful and bitter yet sweet all together. But above all, hopeful. So very, very hopeful.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Domestic abuse and Death of parent

tamara_joy's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Transphobia

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Dysphoria, Abandonment, and Grief

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Cancer, and Panic attacks/disorders

itshrewsbury's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Alcoholism

cheye13's review against another edition

mysterious 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? No

5.0

This reads very much like a false history or a fictional memoir, which is my absolute favorite genre. The articles and papers inter-spliced were very cool, but I wish there'd been more of them, or that they tied in with Alex's story more. It did feel like it had about ten endings, but I did enjoy seeing where everyone ended up. 

Everything up until the final part (which was primarily that series of endings) was perfect to me. The tangibility of the time periods, the snippets of everyday magic, the characters reaching out to each other. The whole book really embodies a very specific feeling I have reading about being a woman in those times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Sexism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Infidelity, Cancer, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

arwinadrea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, and Misogyny

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, and Cancer

Minor: Lesbophobia, Dysphoria, and Outing

Cold War, Women's Lib, Toxic Patriarchy, and Traumatic Childhood meets hopeful coming of age magical realism!