Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling

7 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

patienceholmes's review against another edition

emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, Murder, Medical content, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Loved this reading.  Magic and covens with sapphic riddled through out - including not only the MC’s first ex gf but also another budding potential love interest.  

Unexpected villians and betrayals left me shocked and I’m so glad I own the second as ill be reading it asap. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Hate crime, Outing, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Medical content, Xenophobia, Grief, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Violence

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

ka_ke's review

emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

These Witches Don’t Burn is a fun read. It has excellent LGBTQIA+ representation and quite the diverse cast of characters. It’s an excellent pallet cleanser between heavier books and the speed makes it easy to get through. That being said, it is very simple and borderline predictable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Cursing, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Outing, and Homophobia

emilyrainsford's review

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

Sometimes I think there needs to be two categories of YA. You know how some YA features teenagers running around alone, saving the world and acting twice their age, and then other YA is more of the "ZOMG I'm totes gonna get grounded by mummy and daddy" variety?? I'd say this definitely leans more towards the latter, although I don't mean this as a bad thing. It would be pretty silly to get annoyed that a YA book features teenagers acting like teenagers. 

My overall impression of this book was that is was a perfectly fine story. There's nothing I hate, but equally there's nothing that really got me excited or made me want to gush over it. It was a pretty solid "okay". There's lots of queer rep from an #ownvoices author so that's great to see.  There's plenty of very teenagery relationship angst and perhaps a bit less magic than I might have hoped for, but the plot moves along at an enjoyable pace. It's a pretty quick, easy read, and I think if you go into with the right expectations, you'll enjoy it just fine.  

It ends pretty much in the middle of the story, so warning for the cliffhanger averse! I'll probably pick up the second one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Medical trauma