Reviews tagging 'Child death'

A Touch of Malice by Scarlett St. Clair

17 reviews

ninahuynh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-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

4.5

3 things:

1. A few of the sex scenes are confusing, some of which I think could do without. As the amount of explicit scenes increase and how they arrive to it feel... sudden and might I say, cheap. I makes their relationship's foundation as sex. In some cases, it just feels out of place.
2. I like how Scarlett St. Clair illustrates the deep trauma that comes with boundaries violation and sexual assault. I like that it wasn't just glossed over or simplified; everyone deals with trauma and heals from trauma differently.
3. Who is Theo? Dunno if that's a typo in my ebook but could not find who Theo is. First scene with Theseus.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Cursing, Body horror, Rape, Pandemic/Epidemic, Misogyny, Gore, Sexual content, Hate crime, Grief, Vomit, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Death of parent, Abortion, Alcohol, Violence, Alcoholism, Blood, War, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Sexual assault, and Death

Minor: Pregnancy, Abortion, Child death, Torture, Cannibalism, and Vomit

angelofthetardis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

Hades and Persephone should be ecstatically happy. They are madly in love, engaged to be married and rulers of their own domain. Except Persephone is still struggling to process her recent trauma, her mother is holding New Athens in an icy grip until they separate, Zeus is yet to grant his blessing on their union, and a conspiracy to topple the Olympians is afoot. 

Overall, I think it's the best paced and most enjoyable story of the series to date. I'm enjoying seeing Persephone grow into her powers and the slow expansion of the 'found family' (even if most of them are actually related in some way...), the twists and turns of the over-arching narrative and Hades just being Hades. And for the first time, I didn't get annoyed by Persephone's immaturity - her character has shifted in to something a little more befitting of the future Queen of the Underworld; she's still a little bit immature and naive in places, but the darker thread of her power coming to the surface and the development of her persona to match Hades, gaining satisfaction from the torture of the souls of those that wrong people makes her feel far more rounded. 

That being said, there's a small part of my brain berating me for liking this. I think my main issue is that, while the trauma Persephone went through in the last book is addressed and it does affect her relationship with Hades, it only feels like it's addressed on a surface level and then discarded in favour of a quick recovery. Likewise, the sufferings of other characters are dismissed fairly quickly and one dimensionally - the author had a great opportunity to give us a deeper insight and context into Demeter's motives, but instead it's referred to in a single sentence and she's branded a hopeless case. 

I also think the author has come to rely on the spicy scenes as a bit of a crutch. Persephone claims that she feels at her most powerful when in bed with Hades, and that could be illustrated so, so well to add layers to the story. But instead, it feels like the choice was quantity over quality, and for the most part Hades is the one in the position of power IMO. She can certainly write the scenes, I just think she needs to be more selective about placing them.

As before, I do like the way the author has seamlessly weaved in elements of various myths to expand the world, and reading some of her explanations in the Author's Notes really make these moments stand out. In particular, I like the twist in the character of Helen, the development of Apollo's character and acknowledgement of his past errors, and the continued back and forth between Aphrodite and Hephestus.

The writing is far from perfect and I would kill for more depth, but I couldn't help but enjoy this. Looking forward tonreading Hades' POV shortly!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Torture, Body horror, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Rape, Stalking, Infertility, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Child death, and Blood

lethaltea's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

2.0

plot what plot?? 

no but seriously - these books usually have a fair amount of smut but this one was literally just sex scenes with the teensiest, tiniest little iota of plot in between. 

not that i’m complaining but it was a bit of a let down following the previous two books in the series. 

what i did like is that hades and persephone actually spend time together in this book - i really enjoyed them working together and this was refreshing compared to the other books. 

i have a Game of Gods and i tend to like the Hades books better, so hopefully that one has the missing plot lolol. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Child death, Torture, Death, and Car accident

majormnkey's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.5

Negatives:
- ‘Are you well?’ said about 500 times.
- Again, sex seems to be the cure-all of all Hades’ and Persephone's problems.
- Some chapters had about five sex scenes in 15 pages. Quite the overkill. They started to feel like filler chapters.
- I had to remind myself very often that she’s a goddess, because she’s written so much like a mousy, insecure young student.
Positives: 
- Hecate, Apollo, Hermes! I LIVE for their storylines.
- Easy read, good flow most of the time.

Will probably read the last book, as I’ve come so far by now. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Sexual content

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Death, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Grief, and Torture

Minor: Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cursing, and Child death

maxinesf's review

adventurous dark 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? No

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Alcohol, Murder, Torture, Sexual content, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, and Infertility

kaylameaux's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Sexual violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Alcohol and Torture

Minor: Child death and Confinement

scarlett_f's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

2.0

Well, I read all three books, hoping the writing would improve. The story is constantly interrupted by whatever sex scene can be whipped up next. It seemed like the author used the Karma Sutra page by page to come up with something. I'm not opposed to sex and romance. It's just all of it was so repetitive, overdone, laughable. Roll-your-eyes boring after a short while. It forces you to start skimming. Literally, nothing got done within the storyline due to the constant sex scene interruptions and no exaggeration that it happened every other page. Very poor and disappointing, choppy writing.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, War, Confinement, Infertility, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Vomit, Murder, Rape, Grief, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

Disappointing writing.

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Car accident, Child death, Sexual assault, Confinement, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Murder, Self harm, Sexism, Outing, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Stalking, Toxic friendship, War, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Abandonment, and Alcohol

denisa13's review against another edition

adventurous funny slow-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Kidnapping, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Torture, Rape, Sexual assault, Child death, Murder, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

frantically's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No

5.0

Brought me back what I missed in the second book! The combination between plot & smut/romance was so much more graceful (where before the plot honestly just felt a bit unnecessary) and I feel like we've finally gotten to action-filled parts, especially with that ending! Hades and Persephone were so sweet in this book and I love that their wasn't a lot of drama in their own relationship, just drama from outside. I don't want to spoil anything but gosh, that one plot point just made go 🥰🥰🥰. This is such a fun & intriguing universe and I'd love books about more of the other gods (who am I kidding, I just have a massive crush on Hecate).

I just remembered that I hoped we'd see more of Hades' criminal underworld and while that didn't happen in a big extent we got dark!/spicy!Hades instead and honestly I'm not mad about that. I do wish Hades was more involved in the plot sometimes tho! Hades & Persephone often give off Ken & Barbie vibes, with him just being there to worship her (but also not really complaining here) (need myself a man like that)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Death, Kidnapping, Vomit, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexual content, and Murder

Moderate: War, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Car accident, and Confinement

Minor: Abortion and Suicide