Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

A Court of Thorns and Roses (Parts 1 & 2) [Dramatized Adaptation] by Sarah J. Maas

310 reviews

ananya_b's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

This was a really wonderful read! The pacing is fast and the plot is gripping. I could hardly put it down until I'd finished. Maas has a wonderful writing style too, apart from one too many uses of "my throat closed up" and "my mouth went dry" and a couple of grammatical errors- I found it slightly more ornate than that of most other modern writers, and there's definitely a lot less swearing. 

The characters are well-rounded, especially Feyre. There are a couple of plot inaccuracies

- for instance, the question of why Feyre couldn't see the Attor at first, despite the fact that it wasn't a member of the Spring Court.

Nonetheless, this was one of the best books I've read. I can't wait to read the rest of the series - I hope they're as good as this one!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Blood, Death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, and Slavery

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Vomit, War, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Child death, Kidnapping, and Suicidal thoughts

miss_mar's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.0

I read this book in like two days. Fascinating--in a way that it was easy and simple to read. I have been recently getting into reading more books and this was recommended to me to get started. If you're looking for the ability to consume a book with little brain power this is definitely one of the best ways to get started. So, no judge on my part, it was a fun word cocktail, but I prefer my books shaken not stirred.

Note: I will not be continuing the series. Below is my more personal review.

 Now, what in the kidnap fantasy did I just read? I mean cool beans if that's what you wanted, but it wasn't even a good kidnap fantasy. This was supposedly a beauty and the beast retelling, and it was more of a fever dream with the essence of wafting from the attempts at one. Beauty and the beast is my favorite story from childhood. I have read dozens of retellings and gobble them up like a McDonalds 20-piece chicken nugget dunked in ranch. I felt like Maas was made a solid attempt, but it was as though instead of actually reading the original story she skimmed it and plucked ideas from strings of random sentences. 

 Why? Why? LIKE Why!?! I don't like any of them, Feyre is insufferable Timmy-tam-tucker is a brooding horny emo child that isn't scary. Like beast is supposed to be terrifying? He was just an overly spiced cinnamon roll that rivaled the vomit capacity of just straight up doing the cinnamon challenge. I felt like the book was telling me what I should think and the conclusions I should come to. Lucien was my favorite, but his story was spilled out on the pages through a random conversation, and we didn't even really get to know him.

 This entire book really tested my patience when it came to suspending my disbelief for the sake of bulldozering us through a story. I felt like I was forced into believing what was happening just because I was told by the author I had to. As I found myself questioning why, the book very much just replied by stating "Because I said so!" instead of giving me a reason to care.

 The twists and turns were so...stupid. Like the first 2/3 of the book could have been so much more interesting but nOoOoOoOo. The reveals were just thrown out there unceremoniously across the pages and it left me cackling as how ridiculous they were at times.

 There were questionable consent issues, that didn't make me uncomfortable--I think that's the problem though, I should have been uncomfortable. I felt as though the idea was to be edgy for the sake of it; but it didn't actually provide me with any morale conflict, nor did it have the impact I think it was supposed to. It all just fell flat like thinned out paint on a canvas. I raised an eyebrow and stared at the pages with an expression of "ok, I guess we are doing this now".

 It just missed the mark for me--in fact, it was a foul ball that soured over the fence and landed in a hotdog stand.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment

marlo_o's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Torture

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Vomit and Sexual harassment

orakuruno's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I kinda like that bat man

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Body horror, War, Torture, and Sexual content

Moderate: Trafficking, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol

Minor: Grief, Bullying, Animal death, Classism, Confinement, and Death of parent

hereiskyra's review

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

 This was a SLOW book, which I thought I was prepared for but turns out I wasn’t. 

Unfortunately, I am a little (or a lot) late to the game with ACOTAR and a few things have already spoiled for me. So… I think that affected my judgment when it comes to Feyre and Tamlin (and how much I can’t stand them together even though I really have no reason to feel that way… yet). 

The overall story, when I look at it as a whole, had a lot of cool and exciting elements to it. I think the execution could have been better but it wasn’t terrible. 

I just keep telling myself - THE NEXT ONE WILL BE BETTER. 

Don’t let me down, Feyre. You better become the badass FMC that I know you can be.

Tropes:

Enemies to Lovers

Beauty and the Beast Feels

Spice: 🌶️

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual content and Sexual harassment

chris_reads's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Blood, Confinement, Sexual content, and Sexism

Minor: Sexual harassment

corallydeer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-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

I got physically mad by the time I finished reading this book. The amount of emotional whiplash it gave me by the end was enough to make me vibrate, have a racing heart, and feel like I wanted to chuck the book against the wall. The first two-thirds of the book was spent being fairly bored with the book and even struggling to get through it a bit (even though I'd been warned all over the internet that it could be a bit of a slog), but by the last 200 pages or so I was hooked and on the edge of my seat. 

Feyre's stubbornness and inability to make decisions that seemed to make rational sense,

along with the hot and cold start to her and Tamlin's relationship

, was mildly offputting and prevented me from getting into any kind of consistent flow. It lulled me into a sense of boredom that got 180'd into edge-of-my-seat reading within just a few chapters that didn't release me until I finished the book.

I loved Amarantha as a villain; I thought everything about her was incredibly well done, from the way she acted to her visual description perfectly showing her as a cold and cruel beauty who loved torture

.

I also loved Rhysand as a character (despite everything he did to Feyre in this book) and can't wait to read more about him

. I guess I'm gonna have to go and get the second book asap, dang.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal death and Vomit

Death

(Feyre's mother died when she was young, death and killing of various fae in varying levels of detail)

| Gore

(Feyre has nightmares of killing Andras in human form and skinning him, summer fae gets his wings cut off with details about his condition, decapitated fae head staked on a fountain, detailed killing of Amarantha)

| Murder

(a number of fae and some humans are murdered at the whim of Amarantha, Feyre murders Andras and is later forced to murder innocent fae outright with lots of internal dialogue)

| Violence

(bouts of violence throughout the book related to survival and/or defense until the last third of the book where there is considerably more and graphic violence)

| Alcohol, Drug Abuse, & Sexual Harassment

(Feyre gets drugged with fae wine every day for a few months by Rhysand and forced in her delirium to do sexual dances)

| Injury/Injury Detail

(injuries related to fantasy violence and murder)

| Sexual Content

(a handful of instances that are usually no more than a page and mostly "fade to black" style with the focus on foreplay)

| Animal Death

(Feyre hunts to survive which is referenced in a few spots throughout the book)

| Vomit

(a few depictions of vomiting, typically in reaction to murder/death)

spttsn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Interesting read, though it did swing between painfully predictable and then actual surprises.  You will be yelling at the main character for being an idiot, but you like her anyways.

The kind of romance that you have to be okay with ignoring some of the horrible things all the characters have done to each other. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Death

Moderate: Violence, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Torture

smilingsammie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Murder, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Death, Sexual harassment, Blood, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Ableism, Bullying, and Physical abuse

Minor: Misogyny, Vomit, Grief, Confinement, Death of parent, and Slavery

nikimorr's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring 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? Yes

4.5

I started this book and HATED the main character and questioned the hype surrounding this story. Essentially, the main character, Feyre, starts a woman willing to make herself small and quiet for the benefit of her (very ungrateful) family. A meek female main character is not one that catches my interest. 

But as the book goes on, the better parts of her personality come out and I begin to root for her. Feyre is bold, stubborn and commits wholeheartedly to any goal before her. 

Feyre’s love interest, Tamlin, is a complexity. BookTok has definitely ruined him a bit for me with all the commentary I have seen regarding his character in future books, so I may be prematurely critical. But there is nothing about Tamlin that makes me swoon (and I am fairly susceptible to book boyfriends). Besides being a nice character, there is no part of the story where I’m cheering for Tamlin or their love. Tamlin, from start to finish, comes across as fairly weak and complacent. Weak, clearly, is not a character trait I like to read. 

Lucien, Tamlin’s best friend and emissary, is a character who is complex in the best ways. I am more excited to read about Lucien than Tamlin and am excited to see what the future holds for him. 

Rhysand - both hate and love him. But at least he is ruthless and not weak. 

Although a bit of a slow start, the plot itself is pure adventure, especially the ending. Learning and exploring the new fairy world with Feyre is an exciting journey. At times, a bit confusing - is ash required to kill a fairy? How can Feyre kill fairies without using ash in certain situations? I definitely got caught up in some of the confusing details. But overall the story unfolds relatively seamlessly. 

The ending is what made this book worthwhile, and everything comes together in an amazing way. This is definitely the kind of book you re read just to recognize all the foreshadowing and details missed. 

The ending plot is chef’s kiss. The motive of all of Feyre’s actions being for love and dying for her purpose is frankly inspiring. Although, I definitely questioned whether Tamlin individually was worth it. The ending was strangely realistic - the challenges Feyre faces do not come easily and it’s only from significant intervention that she succeeds at all. Mentally and physically, Feyre barely makes it through. She does not easily “win” and in fact dies, only with the help of others making it through. I had a feeling her being/becoming a fae was coming, and it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.

All in all, I’m definitely very excited to continue on through the rest of the series. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Gore, War, Murder, Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Torture, and Violence