Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

As Old as Time by Liz Braswell

3 reviews

amarti727's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Medical trauma, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Torture, Violence, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, and Physical abuse

meganpbennett's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I've been a Beauty and the Beast fan for years. I think I wore out a VHS tape of the Disney version, and oh, that library! So when I learned that there was a "twisted tale" version, I quickly added it to my TBR list. 

It's an interesting "what if?" and it relies very heavily on the reader's knowledge of the Disney version of the tale, which is far far older than even the Perrault version. This reliance on the reader's knowledge is a drawback, as someone who is casually aware of the story would not be able to understand what is going on in this version, or be able to read other of these "twisted tales" without a thorough understanding of the Disney version of the story. 

 On to the story. The first half plays out almost exactly like the Disney movie, though with a lot of backstory about Belle's mother. The chapters alternate between Belle and Maurice in the present time, and Maurice and Belle's mother in the past, with nothing to differentiate the time periods, which is a major drawback, and I almost stopped reading when I couldn't figure out *when* the chapter was taking place. The book goes into detail about what the kingdom was like before the prince was cursed, but more specifically, *why* the enchantress felt it necessary to curse the Prince. Very interesting. 

The story got much more interesting and intense when Belle finds the rose. As the daughter of the enchantress who set the spell, Belle's accidental touch destroys the rose, dooming the Beast and everyone who was caught in the spell to a life of being enchanted household items. The next sections detail their attempts to research how the curse came into being, who placed the curse and why, and how to break it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Ableism, Bullying, Confinement, Violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Murder, Death, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Gore, Torture, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Racism, and Blood

maymoo's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Very fun to read would recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, and Vomit

Does romantic stockhomesyndrome.