Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

L'Anti-Magicien, 1 by Sebastien de Castell

8 reviews

bibalibz's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful 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

5.0

It's an incredible read and fast-paced without feeling like it's rushing. I became emotionnally invested in all of the characters in one way or another, even the protagonist Kellen, who is fairly unlikeable through most of the book (for good reason, you'll see). I wish I had Ferius' confidence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

neonlazers's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Slavery

Minor: Xenophobia and Fire/Fire injury

tianabooks's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-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

3.75

An interesting new fantasy world to explore, with fascinating lore revolving around magic, the significance of its absence, the lengths people will go to protect secrets, and the ability to continue fighting against all odds. 

This book started slowly and it took me a bit to warm up to these characters and the context. Now mind you, this was mostly because apart from 3 characters (and two animals), everyone else was such a horrible person. These characters did vile things 😩 There is some animal cruelty in this by the way, which can be distressing to read about. 

I have to admit I loved the tarot cards displayed and explored throughout the book and I enjoyed seeing our main character become more familiar with them and their significance. The way the characters used the cards was SO cool let’s be fair. 

A solid first book in this fantasy series! I’m intrigued enough to continue reading 🤍

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Blood

Minor: Slavery

jaedia's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Xenophobia, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Minor: Ableism, Alcohol, and War

kaia_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

melancholymegs's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Gaslighting

Minor: Slavery and Vomit

clairew97's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

bluejayreads's review against another edition

adventurous

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

4.25

This review is hard to write because is the kind of book I call a Perfectly Enjoyable Reading Experience. It was entertaining, I very much enjoyed it while reading, but it’s not particularly memorable and I don’t feel much of a need to continue the series. 

Which is a bit amusing, because this book was trying to have big things to say. This society is stratified into an upper class of people who can do magic and an underclass of people who can’t. The “exile” Kellen is facing is not being thrown out of the city and whatnot, it’s being relegated to second-class citizen and having no options but menial labor or being a servant, probably to his definitely-magical sister. Considering some events that I can’t mention because spoilers, there was definitely an anti-classism message here. It just didn’t come up until almost the very end and thus got overshadowed by Kellen’s magic struggles. 

I am still not sure what the setting was supposed to be. The title of the book, which made me think of a play on “gunslinger,” and Ferius Parfax’s entire character had a very strong Wild West vibe. But the rest of the setting seemed to be Generic Magical City with that roughly-1800s-but-magic-instead-of-tech thing that I think of as generic fantasy. There were interesting details, but I was very confused about what the big picture was supposed to look like. 

And you know, after all that criticism, I’m going to come back and say that I really enjoyed the read. Kellen had definite character growth, putting together all the puzzle pieces of information he discovered was fun, and I loved his efforts to succeed with brains and wit since magic didn’t seem to be coming to his rescue. If you’re at all trope-savvy you’ll see the reason for his magic issues coming from a long way off, but I was pleasantly surprised to be surprised by some of the details. 

The ending wrapped up well enough, and I’m not enamored with this story enough to keep going. There was some wasted potential, especially in regards to magic-less people being a societal underclass, but for as much as I love absurdly powerful characters I also love characters with no power who succeed by cunning and trickery, and so I thoroughly enjoyed Kellen. Though it’s not particularly memorable after I finished it and it’s definitely not making any top books lists for me, it was a perfectly enjoyable read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Torture, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Body horror, Slavery, and Medical trauma

Minor: Genocide, Sexism, and Vomit