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Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'
A Court of Thorns and Roses (Parts 1 & 2) [Dramatized Adaptation] by Sarah J. Maas
315 reviews
_wellshit's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Kidnapping, Murder, Death of parent, Torture, Violence, Slavery, Classism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Blood
kathrynreading's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-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? Yes
3.0
It’s okay but I don’t get the buzz. It was just so many awful things happening over and over. Didn’t really buy into the motivations of the FMC. Will keep going with the series but was very meh as a book to me
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Murder, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Torture, War, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Confinement, and Abandonment
There’s a lot of abuse of the FMC and graphic descriptions of violencestarlit_pathways's review against another edition
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
One of my rare ratings below a 3-star. I have enjoyed stories like this before ('Land Of The Beautiful Dead" by R. Lee Smith, a Beauty & The Beast inspired romantasy with a brooding death god MMC in a mask and the feisty YA FMC protagonist who just wants him to stop with the zombies, already – which made me weep by the end, and "Spinning Silver" by Naomi Novik – which was a fantasy romance take on the Rumplestiltskin fairytale with well-written and well rounded female protagonists and a similar "taken to live in a fantasy world" plot), so conceptually I wasn't opposed to a romantasy or fantasy romance rendition of an old folk or fairytale – certainly the Cupid & Psyche or Beauty & The Beast stories, I have been known to have an affinity for.
It's unfortunate that I feel I ultimately wasted the strength and willpower it took to get through this book.
I went into it knowing quite a lot of the opinions surrounding it – good, yes, but mostly bad. It did colour my perception somewhat going in, but a lot of the thoughts I developed were my own.
For one, my immediate impression was that the writing style both over-the-top and underdone, flipping between the past and the present day in the opening scene, giving an exposition dump without a lot happening for a while.
It got worse for me as it went; the logic in it felt flawed and inconsistent as the main character was so contrary that she at multiple points disregarded what was not only common sense but advice given to her for her survival – which is not to mention how I found several components of the story ethically questionable at best (e.g. the significant age and maturity gap in the main relationship, the scenes that either bordered on being or outright were sexual assault), and the major villain more than severely lacking. The most momentum the story had to me was nearer the end, but I ended up wondering why Feyre was still alive at all by that point, and why a lot of it had to happen at all, if not for sheer plot convenience.
I could understand why somebody might like it, as the atmosphere of the world felt like it had a distinctive character, which is hard to achieve. It had its sexier moments, too, which I know appeals to some, and there were some side characters that even I engaged with (I'm a Alis girl first and foremost – then my allegiance goes to that one kindhearted buff lady mercenary, then to Lucien, whose orange flag was not sleeping or being overly sexual with a teenager, and generally medium green flags having some good banter and development with Feyre, and getting her out of trouble on more than one occasion – plus minimal reference to the state of his abs or his eye colour). To me, however, I feel sad to say that none one of this felt like it was enough to make up for the rest of what I didn't like.
I'm undecided on whether I want to continue with the series, to see if it improves or falls even flatter for me. For now, the idea feels a little draining, but I may revisit it.
It's unfortunate that I feel I ultimately wasted the strength and willpower it took to get through this book.
I went into it knowing quite a lot of the opinions surrounding it – good, yes, but mostly bad. It did colour my perception somewhat going in, but a lot of the thoughts I developed were my own.
For one, my immediate impression was that the writing style both over-the-top and underdone, flipping between the past and the present day in the opening scene, giving an exposition dump without a lot happening for a while.
It got worse for me as it went; the logic in it felt flawed and inconsistent as the main character was so contrary that she at multiple points disregarded what was not only common sense but advice given to her for her survival – which is not to mention how I found several components of the story ethically questionable at best (e.g. the significant age and maturity gap in the main relationship, the scenes that either bordered on being or outright were sexual assault), and the major villain more than severely lacking. The most momentum the story had to me was nearer the end, but I ended up wondering why Feyre was still alive at all by that point, and why a lot of it had to happen at all, if not for sheer plot convenience.
I could understand why somebody might like it, as the atmosphere of the world felt like it had a distinctive character, which is hard to achieve. It had its sexier moments, too, which I know appeals to some, and there were some side characters that even I engaged with (I'm a Alis girl first and foremost – then my allegiance goes to that one kindhearted buff lady mercenary, then to Lucien, whose orange flag was not sleeping or being overly sexual with a teenager, and generally medium green flags having some good banter and development with Feyre, and getting her out of trouble on more than one occasion – plus minimal reference to the state of his abs or his eye colour). To me, however, I feel sad to say that none one of this felt like it was enough to make up for the rest of what I didn't like.
I'm undecided on whether I want to continue with the series, to see if it improves or falls even flatter for me. For now, the idea feels a little draining, but I may revisit it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Blood, Confinement, Torture, Alcohol, Vomit, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
cole_chase's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
4.0
I know this book and series is a national sensation. I admired the craft but it was too much like Beauty and the Beast for me. I was mildly engaged until the end but felt no need to read the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Violence, and Torture
kyliep's review against another edition
2.75
Don’t get the hype. Almost abandoned but was too far in to give up. The way it ended was so frustrating and I hated what Feyre was put through and the choices she made. I felt neutral about her in the beginning, liked her somewhat in the middle, and really disliked her by the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Violence
Moderate: Sexual harassment
goldenleafbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Torture
Moderate: Bullying, Animal death, Kidnapping, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Death of parent
kaylahcc's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Death
Moderate: Sexual content and Sexual harassment
sageypants's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Spoiler review below:
I struggle to be genuinely mean to this book because at the end of the day I was turning pages, I was laughing, I was groaning, and I finished it without too much struggle, but I have…. Issues lol.
First I’ll start with the nice. The world building was actually decently interesting to me. I liked the variety of creepy faeries that Feyre encountered. I appreciated how, despite her weakness and vulnerability as a human she found ways particularly early on in the book to not only survive certain encounters but to get the upper hand in them (will return to this later though because that was not always the case….). I appreciated Nesta’s development later in the story although it seemed a little too much like the book wanted me to forgive how nasty she’d been before too quickly. I thought the pacing of the scenes was enjoyable for an easy read, it never lingered too long on something that bored me or cringed me out. The story also did a decent job of building dread for the first half.
But. This book was verrrrry tropey and predictable. At times it seemed like it was using its darkness and its goriness as a shield against its simplicity instead of trying to be more creative. I can understand that for a first book in a series with (at least?) five others, this one may not have the strongest writing or the most compelling plot, but there were some things I felt were rather unforgivable.
Firstly, the book wastes all of its built up dread on a villainess that inspires exactly zero emotion in me. She comes off as a bratty wannabe evil person. She gushes about how much she loves torturing and killing people but it’s all just /explained/ to me. “Perhaps my darling Clare had to die in order for me to have some true amusement with you.” And lines of this variety were so shallow. Hee hee look at me and how much I love torturing WHEEEEE!!! She was nothing but this distant figure that was visited for scenes where Feyre had to do something. Amarantha never had a moment alone with Feyre to really be nasty, maybe because Maas was just avoiding having to write Feyre out of situations her human body clearly wouldn’t have been able to handle, which leads me to my next gripe.
Early in the book, although it’s made clear how out of her depth she is, Feyre is able to survive and in some ways dominate parts of the faerie world. It didn’t seem Mary Sue to me at all that she caught the Suriel or that she was able to take out a few of those faeries because based on her history she /is/ a very skilled hunter and she shows it. But later on in the book she is constantly being bailed out by other characters which I’m less inclined to forgive the more and more and more it happens. Whether it was Tamlin saving her or Alis just explaining everything to her instead of her figuring out what happened on her own or the Attor leading her straight to the throne room she was never going to find or Lucien and Rhysand both healing her or Lucien’s mom helping with the water bucket. These are all things which I understand functionally serve to show she can’t do this all on her own and her actions and tenacity which caught the attention of allies are the reason she’s made it so far, but this was all for me at the cost of a lot of her agency and it didn’t start when she was a captive under the mountain. I felt as though this character was supposed to be having glorious breakthroughs but they always fell flat because she never really made them on her own. The worm fight was the only saving grace at the end.
The end… like. What was that. I knew the answer to the riddle the second it was said… she did ALL of that for nothing. I mean come on it was on theme for the entire book 😭 the existence of the riddle at all just saps so much out of the gravity of the stakes. I’m supposed to feel terrible that she’s going through all this torture when I literally have the answer to the riddle that would end it all in my head? Just get rid of the riddle entirely!! This is also what makes Amarantha such a lame villain in my eyes, why would she risk SO much on such a simple question? It seems out of character from what I’m /told/ (again, not shown) about her. She even gives Feyre the answer? A cop out defense would be that she assumes all humans are stupid beasts who don’t know anything, but again. To risk SO much on that knowing just how many of the people in that room would want to rip her to shreds? Unbelievable. I would be more willing to believe in these fallible traits of hers if we spent any modicum of time alone with her to reveal herself beyond the mask she puts on in her throne room and even just to have Feyre interact with another goddamn woman alone for more than one page.
There are more things I could mention but it’s almost 3am and I’ve expelled most of my thoughts.
All in all, not terrible. The dialogue was a bit clunky (god they say WHORE a lot) and literally everything was predictable, but sometimes there’s something about a simple and predictable book that scratches a kind of “ha I knew it” itch. So not the worst thing in the world. Sometimes you want the predictable thing to happen and can’t imagine it being anything else without being terrible, but that would have been an excellent time to subvert my low expectations and deliver something truly great. I wonder how the next book in the series will fare.
Edit: there wasn’t a good place for me to add this but I had to mention
It also just isn’t a good premise curse-wise. If you have to explain everything about the curse to me in 3 straight pages of non stop explanatory dialogues from a character who, by the very bounds of the curse, shouldn’t even be able to say anything about it, then maybe it’s not a good curse, or maybe you just needed to think of a more creative way to deliver the truth because man… even from the start it was just so bizarre which doesn’t have to mean bad of course, but I want the explanation to be way more satisfying than hurriedly explained so the plot can move forward to the next thing.
I struggle to be genuinely mean to this book because at the end of the day I was turning pages, I was laughing, I was groaning, and I finished it without too much struggle, but I have…. Issues lol.
First I’ll start with the nice. The world building was actually decently interesting to me. I liked the variety of creepy faeries that Feyre encountered. I appreciated how, despite her weakness and vulnerability as a human she found ways particularly early on in the book to not only survive certain encounters but to get the upper hand in them (will return to this later though because that was not always the case….). I appreciated Nesta’s development later in the story although it seemed a little too much like the book wanted me to forgive how nasty she’d been before too quickly. I thought the pacing of the scenes was enjoyable for an easy read, it never lingered too long on something that bored me or cringed me out. The story also did a decent job of building dread for the first half.
But. This book was verrrrry tropey and predictable. At times it seemed like it was using its darkness and its goriness as a shield against its simplicity instead of trying to be more creative. I can understand that for a first book in a series with (at least?) five others, this one may not have the strongest writing or the most compelling plot, but there were some things I felt were rather unforgivable.
Firstly, the book wastes all of its built up dread on a villainess that inspires exactly zero emotion in me. She comes off as a bratty wannabe evil person. She gushes about how much she loves torturing and killing people but it’s all just /explained/ to me. “Perhaps my darling Clare had to die in order for me to have some true amusement with you.” And lines of this variety were so shallow. Hee hee look at me and how much I love torturing WHEEEEE!!! She was nothing but this distant figure that was visited for scenes where Feyre had to do something. Amarantha never had a moment alone with Feyre to really be nasty, maybe because Maas was just avoiding having to write Feyre out of situations her human body clearly wouldn’t have been able to handle, which leads me to my next gripe.
Early in the book, although it’s made clear how out of her depth she is, Feyre is able to survive and in some ways dominate parts of the faerie world. It didn’t seem Mary Sue to me at all that she caught the Suriel or that she was able to take out a few of those faeries because based on her history she /is/ a very skilled hunter and she shows it. But later on in the book she is constantly being bailed out by other characters which I’m less inclined to forgive the more and more and more it happens. Whether it was Tamlin saving her or Alis just explaining everything to her instead of her figuring out what happened on her own or the Attor leading her straight to the throne room she was never going to find or Lucien and Rhysand both healing her or Lucien’s mom helping with the water bucket. These are all things which I understand functionally serve to show she can’t do this all on her own and her actions and tenacity which caught the attention of allies are the reason she’s made it so far, but this was all for me at the cost of a lot of her agency and it didn’t start when she was a captive under the mountain. I felt as though this character was supposed to be having glorious breakthroughs but they always fell flat because she never really made them on her own. The worm fight was the only saving grace at the end.
The end… like. What was that. I knew the answer to the riddle the second it was said… she did ALL of that for nothing. I mean come on it was on theme for the entire book 😭 the existence of the riddle at all just saps so much out of the gravity of the stakes. I’m supposed to feel terrible that she’s going through all this torture when I literally have the answer to the riddle that would end it all in my head? Just get rid of the riddle entirely!! This is also what makes Amarantha such a lame villain in my eyes, why would she risk SO much on such a simple question? It seems out of character from what I’m /told/ (again, not shown) about her. She even gives Feyre the answer? A cop out defense would be that she assumes all humans are stupid beasts who don’t know anything, but again. To risk SO much on that knowing just how many of the people in that room would want to rip her to shreds? Unbelievable. I would be more willing to believe in these fallible traits of hers if we spent any modicum of time alone with her to reveal herself beyond the mask she puts on in her throne room and even just to have Feyre interact with another goddamn woman alone for more than one page.
There are more things I could mention but it’s almost 3am and I’ve expelled most of my thoughts.
All in all, not terrible. The dialogue was a bit clunky (god they say WHORE a lot) and literally everything was predictable, but sometimes there’s something about a simple and predictable book that scratches a kind of “ha I knew it” itch. So not the worst thing in the world. Sometimes you want the predictable thing to happen and can’t imagine it being anything else without being terrible, but that would have been an excellent time to subvert my low expectations and deliver something truly great. I wonder how the next book in the series will fare.
Edit: there wasn’t a good place for me to add this but I had to mention
It also just isn’t a good premise curse-wise. If you have to explain everything about the curse to me in 3 straight pages of non stop explanatory dialogues from a character who, by the very bounds of the curse, shouldn’t even be able to say anything about it, then maybe it’s not a good curse, or maybe you just needed to think of a more creative way to deliver the truth because man… even from the start it was just so bizarre which doesn’t have to mean bad of course, but I want the explanation to be way more satisfying than hurriedly explained so the plot can move forward to the next thing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual harassment, Body horror, Gore, Torture, and Sexism
furreverreading's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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
4.0
The first half of the book was a bit slow for me, but the second half picked up, and I enjoyed the ending. Some characters I have mixed feelings about, so it will be interesting to see how they develop in the next books, to see which way my feelings solidify.
SJM writing was overall decent. I did get a little annoyed with the ways she tended to describe Feyres feelings or reactions to things. Such as “my bowels turned watery” and various forms of that. But it can be overlooked 🤷🏻♀️
Overall, it didn’t live up to the hype that I expected it to, but it wasn’t terrible. It was still a fun read, and I plan to read the next one soon!
SJM writing was overall decent. I did get a little annoyed with the ways she tended to describe Feyres feelings or reactions to things. Such as “my bowels turned watery” and various forms of that. But it can be overlooked 🤷🏻♀️
Overall, it didn’t live up to the hype that I expected it to, but it wasn’t terrible. It was still a fun read, and I plan to read the next one soon!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Alcohol, Child death, Confinement, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Animal death, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Gore
emmeliene's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.75
"My bowels turned watery" - yeah mine too feyre.
Ridiculously inconsistent in ways that make me wonder if this was proofread even once.
Ridiculously inconsistent in ways that make me wonder if this was proofread even once.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Ableism
huge chunk of the premise is based around fae men's sexual desires ( and their sexual desires are NOT that rooted in consent )