Reviews tagging 'Torture'

These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling

8 reviews

_nem_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Violence, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Torture and Blood

annorabrady's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

3.0

This book went in many different directions. I almost DNF'd at the beginning then the story started to pick up. And I got into it until I got blindsided by

the parental death. As someone who unexpectedly lost their mom in the last year, that definitely threw me back into the trauma

. 

Overall, I'm not sure how I feel about the story. I gave it a 3 because it was entertaining enough. But this isn't one I am going to revisit. 

If you have emotional triggers, be aware and proceed with caution. This hits on a lot of things that could get people. I've done my best to list the ones I can remember. 

As an aside, this book is not diverse. Beyond the romance and the ex, there's one closeted character who gets little page time and one gay character who gets an even smaller part. Then there's nothing. Everyone is white. If there aren't white characters, they're not described. In real life, Salem has close to 18% of their population identifying as latine and nearly 4% as black. Surely there could have been a friend, family member, or other recurring character who wasn't white. 

After giving myself time to think about it, I genuinely don't understand the purpose of killing off her father beyond shock value. It didn't add anything to the story. She learned nothing new – he died while trying to give her a clue but didn't actually say anything – and her actions didn't change.

It also would have made more sense narratively if he hasn't died, especially in terms of Victoria being left alone after getting her magic back. 

Hannah would have saved Victoria regardless of her father's death. She was just as invested in the identity of the witch hunter before and after his death. And his death didn't add to any of her struggles or character development. He just died. And then he had a funeral. And she said she was upset about it.

Losing a parent changes you. Especially if it's a parent you have a good relationship with. It fundamentally changes so much of your life, your beliefs, and your priorities. And I saw none of that reflected in what Hannah did at the end of the book. Hannah was still the same character, she was just down a parent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, and Toxic friendship

solarel's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I’ll give this one a flat 3 out of five enjoyment from me. Honestly the first half felt gimmicky and flat. It was a lot, and I mean a lot, of telling not showing. Often times repeatedly. 

But! The second half really picked up and once the pieces all fell into place the story actually took hold. The stakes increased with every mistake and Hannah’s reactions felt very real. I don’t cry for books often and twice I was tearing up. 

For a YA some of the silly teen-isms are to be expected. I’m glad I pushed through to read the second half. It was fun. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Torture, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Biphobia, Genocide, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

moonstruck_next_friday's review

adventurous dark emotional lighthearted mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

A good mix of spooky themes and lesbian fluff. It’s so much fun to hate Veronica and root for Morgan. There’s a couple good twists at the end too. Even though “These Witches Don’t Burn” came out before the prequel “This Spell Can’t Last”, I highly recommend reading the prequel first it’ll give great context for the characters actions and decision making. Can’t wait to read the sequel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Murder, Sexual violence, and Torture

lucyselim's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I really don't know how to feel about this book. On the one hand I love the representation and the story is pretty decent, if somewhat predictable, but I also just felt something lacking. However, I know I would have loved this book more when I was a teenager. To conclude, whilst realising I am not in the target audience, I am still a little disappointed with this book overall, but I love the casual gayness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Torture

sarah_onyxartemis's review

emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Violence

Minor: Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Stalking, and Torture

charloforce's review

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

To be fair to this book, I think it's targeted towards the age of its protagonist or younger (I'd say 14-18). To call it juvenile without that qualification would be unfair, due to the intended demographic and the age of its characters. But older readers should know there are a few strong eye-roll moments plot-wise, due to extreme-teen behavior. However, I did like the protagonist overall, especially the way that she consistently stood up for herself and cared about her family and community. 

This book suffered a little bit from tell-over-show, with a thinly-veiled info dump here and there, but since the book was otherwise fairly fast-paced and is overall pretty short, I didn't mind.

The queer representation was very satisfying - as a reader I felt like it was purposeful, but not heavy-handed. It was nice that the story was full of queer characters who embodied their queerness, but none of the plotlines (besides romance, obviously) were centered on their queerness. There were a few passing moments of homophobia but it was by no means a major element.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Murder, and Medical content

Moderate: Torture and Blood

Minor: Homophobia

cassssss's review

adventurous emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Car accident, and Torture

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, and Violence