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exactimondo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Physical abuse and Domestic abuse
oystersauce's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Death, Gore, and Torture
Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Domestic abuse
kaayaak's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
This book felt soo short! One chapter of the last book I read felt equivalent to this whole thing lol
thank god the incest plot is FINALLY gone, but why is it so angstyyy
Graphic: Child abuse and Child death
Moderate: Blood, Violence, and Domestic abuse
breedawnwriter's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Blood, Child death, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Sexual content, Cursing, and Body horror
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Physical abuse, and Domestic abuse
rchatterjee188's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Kidnapping
Minor: Biphobia, Blood, and Domestic abuse
psliz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and War
Moderate: Death of parent, Hate crime, Drug use, Medical trauma, Medical content, Grief, Child death, and Death
Minor: Domestic abuse, Addiction, Infertility, Child abuse, Vomit, and Blood
jaynovara's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm
Moderate: Murder, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Vomit, Violence, Domestic abuse, Torture, and Toxic relationship
green_amaryllis's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Child death, and Blood
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
roget's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Update: Finally finished it on a whim. There was a lot of cringing, incredulous "what"-ing, and the like. I don't recommend this book to ANYONE with trauma from a domestic violence or infidelity history, as some of the material will likely be incredibly triggering. Probably don't read this review. It's unfiltered, my initial impressions, and slightly unhinged with frustration.
Clary proceeded to be the least likeable person in the book, still. Very much reads like something written during the era when we were judging celebs for shaving their heads or daring to be a size 10/12.
Jace's issues were incredibly frustrating, and the line of delineation between Jace's actual trauma and what's being caused by the big bad's is often unclear.
Strong points: Luke is usually the only person with some amount of common sense, and Max's prior death continued to be painful. Watching them all continue to try to go on without him was rough, and it didn't feel like it was glossed over much.
The end of it seems to create YET MORE opportunities for grossness that I'd hoped we'd left behind us, which makes me want to throw up in my mouth.
Jace is hard to like because the narrative is clearly so in love with him but he's also clearly so dysfunctional and absolutely awful at communicating about it. It's like everyone's always like "Oh, he's so HOT and TORTURED and look at his muscles and how HOT he is and how much every girl ever WANTS him" which is a bit much to take when he is ten kinds of immature and in need of serious intervention on top of being, what. Sixteen? Seventeen? A literal child. (Ugh. Can you tell I'm not the YA target audience? Even still, I don't think adolescent me would've found him all that appealing.) Gross, gross, gross. You'd at least think that the other POV's would be less complimentary to Jace, but Simon's even all "Wow. Jace is so cool and nonchalant and BROKEN INSIDE." I mean, this boy manages to be so toxic Clary thinks he's ending things because of a 24 hour gap of contact. (And that in and of itself was mind-bendingly melodramatic. Like, the text read like a parody of YA romance--like something written to make fun of it.) I just have a really difficult time believing that Clary and Jace love each other the way they're constantly thinking they do when they jump to conclusions, keep secrets, and treat each other like vipers that might strike out and cause damage at any moment.
Yet these books always sort of patch it up right at the very end so Clary and Jace can have an "us against the world" moment before the credits roll. TLDR: as an adult, I do not find teenage Jace appealing in the slightest, so it's really rough trying to slog through Clary's perpetual drooling.
And don't even get me started on Simon's nonsense this book. Totally disappointing. OH. AND the fourteen year old? Did NOT like Simon biting her. That set off so many alarm bells. Even though Simon doesn't see Maureen that way, the scene read very predatorial, and Clare wasn't careful about the way that was unpacked. The text didn't make it into something nearly as disgusting as it should've been. I also find it near-impossible to believe that Jace and Jordan would've let Simon out of the apartment had he been in that bad of shape. I don't think Simon would've neglected himself to that degree. He's not stupid. He wouldn't be like, "Oh, neglecting to feed--I can do that. It doesn't matter." No. He'd be hyper-cautious, taking all steps he could to try to mitigate the risk he presents to others.
So I don't buy that for a minute. The conflict there felt completely contrived out of a series of bad decisions to get Simon to not have agency and do something shocking and monstrous to give us a jump scare.
Why am I reading this? Mostly anthropological urge to track this cultural phenomenon from when I was a tween/teen. But every time I pick one of these books up, I'm reminded why I have to take the series in VERY. SMALL. DOSES.
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Graphic: Self harm, Toxic friendship, Blood, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Child death, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Grief, Incest, Dysphoria, Gore, Vomit, Infertility, Mental illness, Stalking, Domestic abuse, Torture, Death of parent, and Sexual content
bettysbookshelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
Minor: Domestic abuse
mayas abusive ex comes back and they try to explain away the abuse because he was turning into a werewolf so it's brushed off as fine