Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

9 reviews

judassilver's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, War, Child abuse, Self harm, Death, Blood, and Confinement

Moderate: Child death, Torture, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

Minor: Suicide and Pandemic/Epidemic

corallydeer's review

adventurous dark hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

This was a great read! I had heard that Rogerson was a phenomenal writer and I heavily agree after this first foray into her works. I loved her writing style and thought it was a great blend of fairly direct writing with prose-y styles. I loved the characters and the world so much; the banter between the revenant and Artemisia was always a great time and the world they existed in felt so unique and fresh. The beginning felt a bit slow to me, so I was sitting more at a four-star rating for a while, but the second half of the book really picked up and suddenly I felt like I couldn't put it down and now I even want to reread it! The second half quickly shot the book up to a full five-star rating for me and I can't wait to read more of Rogerson's works now!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Child death, and Self harm

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, and Suicide

Death

(the book is about spirits and ghosts so death is a huge part of the overall world and plot)

| Blood

(blood is brought up on multiple occasions and used for things)

| Fire/Fire Injury

(Artemisia has extensive burn scars on her hands that come up frequently through the story)

| Child Death

(some of the spirits depicted in the book are dead children)

| Violence

(there are a number of battles throughout the book)

| Confinement

(Artemisia is confined on multiple occasions when arrested)

| Animal Death

(some animals die here and there as minor details)

| Self Harm

(Artemisia has to cut herself to acquire blood for runes and is depicted throughout the novel not being afraid to singe/burn herself for a purpose)

| Suicide

(Leander's brother committed suicide which is explained in passing)

sonygaystation's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

The character growth in this book was so *chef’s kiss*!!! Also the revenant has my whole heart

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Abandonment, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Blood and Death

Minor: Child death, Grief, Gore, Suicide, and Body horror

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

I REALLY liked this. Artemisia is a fun, strange main character that misses social cues and has social anxiety, but it isn’t written in that cloying internalized misogyny “I’m not like other girls” way. She just feels like a real girl that spent her formative years in a terrible situation, and doesn’t quite know how to interact as a result. She also doesn’t fall into the boring misanthrope trope; she is incredibly kind and empathetic despite thinking she’s terrible at people & kind of wishing they’d leave her alone. 

The world building in this novel is exquisite! I love when religious institutions are called into question and have their agendas interrogated. The friendships and interpersonal connection in this book are so heartwarming yet nuanced. 

I loved how Artemisia was able to step back and consider how cloying and sacrificial “chosen one” mentality is, and is able to empathize even with villains for that reason. Often in fantasy you get people chosen for or pushed into some grand fate and they kinda just… go with it. In this, Artemisia goes with it, but she also clearly articulates how shitty and painful and isolating the road will be, and how much she feels like a pawn in someone’s game. She’s tired, she forgets to eat, she realizes that caring for herself is just as important as the mission she’s on. 

10/10 would recommend and I would not mind if this turned to a series (duology would be nice but I will take 3 if I must)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Murder, and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Suicide

chamaeleontis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Violence, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Death, Excrement, Grief, Medical content, Self harm, Suicide attempt, War, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Gore, and Torture

kbairbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.75

I could not, and didn’t want to, put this book down. It swept me up with masterful storytelling, intriguing well fleshed out characters, adventure, fight scenes, intrigue, and so much more. This was such a fun read and I’m sad there isn’t more yet!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, War, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Violence

bluejayreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark

• 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? Yes

4.75

I did not have very high hopes for this book. The cover made me think of a Dark and Edgy YA fantasy from the 2000s, and the protagonist’s name seemed to fit the stereotype. And I have read so many books about warrior nuns. I was a little intrigued by the idea of learning how to deal with a revenant from the revenant, though, and I was in the middle of a string of DNF books so I figured one more couldn’t hurt. 

And then it actually turned out to be good. 

So the nuns here aren’t full-on warrior nuns. They’re trained with holy daggers and censers of holy incense because their job isn’t to fight people, it’s to fight the spirits of the dead, who tend to possess people. They also take care of the dead because properly buried people don’t tend to become malicious spirits. Artemisia is quite talented, but she doesn’t get people at all and is always misunderstanding what they want and would be perfectly happy living in the abbey and caring for corpses her whole life. I absolutely headcanon her as autistic. The book implies nothing of the sort and it could very easily be read as a result of the same childhood trauma that gives her limited use of her hands, but her struggles with understanding people and societal rules and what seemed like sensory overload were very relatable. 

This book is also full of delightful tropes, such as: 

• I reluctantly agreed to have an obnoxious presence share my head to deal with an even worse situation and I can’t get them out but we’re starting to get along
• The church says that’s evil but turns out they’re lying (including bonus: person discovering this is dedicated to the church and has to grapple with the fact that they lied)
• No one expects the protagonist to be absurdly powerful
• Oops! I accidentally became a folk hero (including bonus trope: the church is Big Mad about it)

 
The plot itself also holds a few surprises. It’s dark and full of the rampaging dead, but it also seems fairly straightforward until the end when you discover it is not at all what you thought. There are several unexpected allies, a very nice horse, the complexities of trying to keep your identity secret from the authorities when the masses know you as a hero, death-defying escapes, fantastic displays of magic, creeping around in crypts, and important choices. Artemisia learns that just because people don’t make sense to her doesn’t mean she can’t have friends, the dynamic between her and the revenant is great, and there’s plenty of magic and adventure. I also appreciated the religion aspect, which struck me as Catholicism if Catholics were more concerned with making the dead stay dead than going somewhere in particular after death.
 
I know it wasn’t perfect and I’m liking it more in this review than when I actually read it – I think my opinion is enhanced by the fact that I didn’t expect to like it very much – but it was a highly enjoyable read. The characters were good, the plot was solid with some interesting twists, I love seeing disabled protagonists, and I’m always down for the Protagonist Is Absurdly Powerful and Reluctant Allies With The Voice In My Head tropes. I was pleasantly surprised when how enjoyable Vespertine actually is.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, and War

Minor: Child death, Vomit, Suicide, and Death of parent

Dead bodies, mind control, having someone else inside your head

lillythebluepaladin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

5.0

THIS WAS A BEAUTIFUL READ! I never thought that I would ever say that the thought of getting possessed by a sassy and snarky yet protective spirit would be pleasant, but this book changed my mind.

I loooved the world setting, the plot and the CHARACTERS!
I was told that this was gonna be a Venom by Marvel for teenage girls, and yeah it kinda is, but it is so much more!
My traumatised ass cried to this a few times, because I could relate a lot to what our main character Artemisia and our reverent has experienced, and this book genuinely felt like a long overdue hug.

MARGARET ROGERSON, WITH MADELINE MILLER AND TAMORA PIERCE, ARE THE QUEENS OF FEMALE FANTASY

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, and Self harm

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, and War

Minor: Child death and Vomit

bibliomania's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, Child death, Murder, and Abandonment