Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Follow the River by CE Ricci

13 reviews

lyinginsilence's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Rape

Moderate: Homophobia and Drug use

huevo181's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Suicide

friends2lovers's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Biphobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Cursing, Homophobia, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Drug abuse, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

madscientistcat's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Trigger warnings should be up front in this book. It’s not appropriate to hide them because of “spoilers” especially when they have the magnitude, gravity, and explicitness that these scenes have in here. I don’t read or care personally about CWs for myself, but I know it’s important to many people to include them, and their absence here is unnecessary and, frankly, appalling.

I’m torn on rating the book because of the thoughtlessness of the CW situation, but I decided to rate it as just the contents of the story and settle for leaving appropriate CWs on here and the mini-rant above.

This book ripped my heart right out. Devastating and emotional, full of pain and angst but also discovery and joy. Be prepared to read both books of this duology together as this book ends on a cliffhanger with no HEA/HFN. The next book does pick up right from the scene at the end. The writing is a little odd at times, and learning this was the author’s debut makes that make sense. The vibes are perfect though. For this book. The next one…. well. It’s *weird.* I’ll deal with that later though…

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Blood, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Abandonment, Bullying, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Rape, Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Drug use

queen21's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Biphobia, Child abuse, Mental illness, Death, Bullying, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Mental illness, Rape, Sexual harassment, Child death, Blood, and Homophobia

Minor: Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Rape, and Drug use

babeinlibrary's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Biphobia, Rape, Grief, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Bullying

anintrovertrambles's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Sexual assault

katelynrose21's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Drug use, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

cherryblossomreads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Læs TW, hvis du er sårbar for særligt indhold.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol, Rape, and Child abuse

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Death

wilder's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

 2 / 5

TW: mentions of SA in this review.

Honestly, I should’ve DNF’d this book. It was not good - I just can’t bring myself to DNF books a lot of the time. Well, now that I’ve finished it, I have to see it through to the end of the sequel and read another 400 pages of this Wattpad-esque angst. Because unfortunately, that’s how my brain works - I need to see everything to it’s end, even train wrecks.

Follow the River by C.E. Ricci was kind of all over the place. After just reading Don’t You Dare by the same author, I had decently high hopes going into this one - especially after seeing some hype for this duology. However, the characters were sooo wishy washy for most of the book. They both are wildly unlikable for reasons that were not on purpose. Intentional angst and toxicity aside, these two were just damn near unredeemable characters who never faced consequences for their actions & we are expected to root for them.

Spoilery thoughts ahead but PLEASE see trigger warnings if you are someone who needs them. 

I’m a big supporter of “write whatever you want” and this absolutely applies here too. However, you have to take SOME care with what you’re writing when publishing it to the masses. I don’t like how certain themes of SA were portrayed here and then forgiven almost immediately or glossed over, then in the literal next sentence the characters talk about deeply traumatic child SA. Then have sex. I just… it didn’t feel like anything was handled with care, and it’s very hard not to compare how it was handled here against a book like A Little Life or even All for the Game (didn’t think I’d be comparing those two in my lifetime…). One main character sexually assaults the other and never apologizes or feels regret. The other brutally rapes the first and that barely causes ripples in their relationship in the long run. Again - write what you want, it isn’t the acts in the fiction that bothers me, it’s how the rest of the story shapes around the acts that does.

I guess the best thing I got out of reading this was seeing how C.E. Ricci has improved between this book and her newest release, Don’t You Dare. I enjoyed her writing in that book, and will likely keep trying to pick up her works but this one was a disappointment. Hopefully the sequel is better? 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Child abuse, and Sexual assault