Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

Las brujas del ayer y del mañana by Alix E. Harrow

145 reviews

beth_dieroff's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective slow-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Homophobia, Violence, Death, Torture, Abortion, Sexism, and Transphobia

vampire_burrito's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

i loved the writing style, and the relationship between the three sisters (my favourite was Agnes) however i feel like the book would have been more interesting had it been about the daughters of tituba and had Cleo as the main character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Racism

Moderate: Abortion and Transphobia

windowsill's review against another edition

DNF @24%

I really wanted to like this book and was looking forward to reading it. However, the characters and story quickly started to feel very flat and juvenile. While I can enjoy books for younger audiences, this book felt as if it was trying to be for an adult audience and just fell short. It was a strange mixture of purple prose and incredibly simplistic writing that wasn't melded together in a way that worked for me. 
I might come back at another time and give it another try because, as I said, I wanted to like this book. It's possible the story improves as this book goes on, but for now I'm not going to stick around to find out. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Child abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Abortion and Death of parent

anastasiamakes's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Confinement, Racism, Blood, Child abuse, Hate crime, Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality

Minor: Slavery, Abortion, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

schnaucl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

I really like this book.  It's very smartly written with interesting characters and clever tweaks to history and historical figures.  

It's a book that's full of women's rage and the subtle ways they have to hide their power to pass things down through the generations and the never ending cycle of women gaining a measure of power only to have it nearly all taken from them.  But still they endure. 

I appreciated the effort to bring in words and ways from other cultures, both contemporary and historical, and the focus on the fact that progress will eventually cause a reactionary backlash which will fall hardest on the most marginalized.

While I really liked the book, the ending didn't quite work for me.  Well, it works on a thematic level, just not a practical level. I can't think of any reason Gideon would choose to take over the body of a female child.   He is keenly aware of how easy to is to accuse a woman of witchcraft and see her burn, whether she's a witch or not.  I can't see himself putting himself in that position, even temporarily.   Surely he's found some method over the long years of gaining procuring what he needs from the next man (or potential men) whose body he intends to occupy.   I think Eve had to be in some kind of proximity and I'd think it a big gamble that once she was rescued she'd be brought to her mother's burning rather than safely whisked out of the city.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Death, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Violence

Minor: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Physical abuse, Torture, and Abortion

sneakysnam's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Abortion, Child abuse, Misogyny, Colonisation, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Grief, and Kidnapping

Minor: Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death of parent, and Grief

immovabletype's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Sexism, Torture, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Hate crime, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Abortion, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, and Murder

Minor: Transphobia

okiecozyreader's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

Honestly, maybe 3.5 rounded to 4? 
I felt like this chapter moved better for me than Ten Thousand Doors, but there were just parts of it that I could have skipped. It’s just so long, and I guess, not my favorite. I liked The Change better, kind of a similar idea, but it was more compelling to me.

The cover and the rough edges made this such a beautiful paperback, though. I’m looking forward to discussing with my bookclub Monday. I don’t think I’m 4 years, we have had a fantasy book, so it will be interesting.

The Eastwood sisters in New Salem have been separated since there was a fire at their home. The youngest sister, James Juniper, who is blamed for the murder of her father is mad that her sisters deserted with the evil man, and she comes across a chant that she can’t get out of her head and she repeats until a magical tower appears and disappears. The community wants to get rid of all Magic and witches and becomes afraid, except for the women who use a little magic to make their lives a little better. This occurrence also brings her back into the lives of her sisters: Beatrice Belladonna (Bella), a librarian; and Agnes Amaranth, a worker who has her own secret. The sisters find their own connection to Crone, Mother, and Maiden, the three archetypes in the witch-tales.

“Agnes learned young that you have a family right up until you don’t. You take care of people right up until you can’t, until you have to choose between staying and surviving.” P14

“Witching and women’s rights. Suffrage and spells. They’re both… a kind of power aren’t they? The kind we aren’t allowed to have.” P47

“Well, I think maybe magic wants to be found. And I think maybe we’re the ones who are supposed to find it.” P125

“Surely trust is never truly broken, but merely lost…. And what is lost, can’t that be found?” P160

“Then Agnes is alone, feeling like a snake or a shard of glass, something that hurts if you hold it close.” P176

“And now all of it’s gone and all our hope with it. …
What have I done?” …
“But let’s look at what you’ve done, Belladonna Eastwood. You have called back the Lost Way of Avalon and spread its secrets around half the city. You saved both your sisters’ lives. You stood for something. You lost something. … You gained something too, I think.” P335

“The Three waited. They studied and argued and wept, despaired and dreamed, undying, and eventually they lay themselves down to sleep. They let the shape of themselves coil down among the black roots and dark earth, slipping between stones and the brittle pages of books.” P409

“Together they dared to dream of a better world, where women weren’t broken and sisters weren’t sundered and rage wasn’t swallowed, over and over again.” P436

“Maybe magic is just the space between what you have and what you need”… p459

“Maleficae quondam, maleficaeque futurae.” … “in English, it’s ‘witches once and witches in the future.” … 
“I think it means witches will return one day, no matter how many of us they burn.” P464

“I am a witch. … And so are my sisters, and so will be my daughter and my daughter’s daughter.  …
And so is every woman who says what she shouldn’t or wants what she can’t have, who fights for her fair share.” P467

“Or maybe dying for someone else is just worth more than living for yourself.” P489

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Abortion

lilithreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Death of parent, Abortion, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Violence, Blood, Confinement, Animal death, and Torture

Minor: Kidnapping, Transphobia, Grief, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

julianimal's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Racism, Torture, Cursing, Homophobia, and Murder

Minor: Abortion and Blood