Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung by Nina MacLaughlin

5 reviews

snowiceblackfruit77's review

dark informative mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Infertility, Misogyny, Stalking, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Death, Incest, Murder, Sexism, Violence, Body horror, Bullying, Rape, Child death, Cursing, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

haleytaryn's review

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Pedophilia, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Stalking, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Incest, Child abuse, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Rape, and Violence

aandromeda's review

dark emotional

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Child death, Death, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Incest, Grief, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and Torture

lucysgoodfellow's review

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

 A novel about transformation, granting voices to those often silenced by history.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Incest, Child abuse, Torture, Murder, Stalking, and Suicide

courtneyfalling's review

dark emotional tense fast-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? No

3.0

Dark feminist retellings of the myths in Ovid's Metamorphoses? Conceptually I'm so here. But this collection was... heavy and very viscerally in the characters' voices and experiences. I have to wonder who the intended audience is because people who pick up feminist Ovid retellings probably already agree that these stories are about gendered violence and likely have experienced gendered violence themselves, but this collection feels very sharp and potentially retraumatizing to that exact set of people. Not all the time, and not in an intentionally dangerous way, but still... this was pretty hard to get through at points and I had to wonder to what end. 

Edit a few weeks later: the more I think about it, the more that the equation of sexual violence and vulnerability to cis womanhood in this book feels gender essentialist and slipping into TERFdom...

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Stalking, Suicide, and Torture

Minor: Animal death, Cannibalism, Dysphoria, Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, and Transphobia