Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan

21 reviews

louisa_pennyfeather2021's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Moral of the story, it's spelled "Man"ipulation for a reason. Brie deserves an Anti-hero arc. I support women's rights, but more importantly I support women's wrongs.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Classism, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny

Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, Drug use, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual content, War, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Murder

laura_rheads_too_much'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Stalking, Gaslighting, and Death

Minor: Slavery, Sexual content, Violence, and Kidnapping

bookishflower's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.75

This is a shameless a court of thorns and roses fan fiction, don’t believe me? You have the blond, spring prince and the dark, tattooed, dream wandering, shadow prince both fighting over the chosen one human girl who must free the lands from a curse. And surprise, surprise,

Sebastian/Tamlin is manipulative and evil.

Whatever team you’re on, I’m team single Brie! Give her a villain arc, let her

steal back her crown and get her revenge on everyone who manipulated her. Subvert the genre.

. The representation isn’t great, and the description of the goblins errs on problematic (while this is historic and not a new invention by Ryan,  not researching the history of antisemitism in depictions of goblins-especially after the discussions around j.k. Row*ing-feels sloppy). (However, I should add I am not a Jewish reviewer and you should always listen to own voice reviewers. If I am wrong please correct me). That being acknowledged, this is a fun guilty pleasure book, perfect for fans of acotar and those looking to get out of a reading slump. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Murder, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Slavery, Homophobia, and Trafficking

kinsportch's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Wow. Just wow. Amazing characters and amazing storyline. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, and Slavery

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcohol, Gaslighting, Homophobia, and War

kingrosereads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious fast-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 book was too good. I’m so mad I have to wait 10 months for the next one! I love Brie and Finn. Sebastian was sweet and I liked him at first but I definitely sensed that he was half Unseelie and that he was killing the women that were at the palace considering his overuse of magic. The manipulation was so frustrating and I can’t wait to see what Brie does with her power.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting

offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abandonment, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Kidnapping

Minor: Genocide, Slavery, and Trafficking

politewriter's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.25

World building and immersion are amazingly well done. There’s lots of factions, characters, and lands. But despite this, I never felt confused or overloaded with information. But the Female Lead is so irritating. She’s not only naive, but denser than lead. She never asks the right questions, so much so that any foreshadowing becomes blatant and frustrating. It’s one thing to have an author guide the readers to future plot twists, and another to spoon feed them it with their nose pinched shut. I hope the supporting characters are treated better in the next book, and that the FL wises up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Drug use, Racism, Sexism, Death of parent, Death, Slavery, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Kidnapping, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Murder, Infidelity, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Genocide, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Trafficking, War, and Cursing

anaya_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted slow-paced

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

3.75

It took me a while to finish this one but I think it paid off. A bit interested to see how the rest of the series goes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Genocide, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

soundlysmitten's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.0

I didn’t catch big feelings for this book. It’s been compared to both The Cruel Prince and ACOTAR, and while I can see some similarities in the story line, this one fell a bit flat for me. Not to say it’ll put you to sleep—I actually found it relatively entertaining, but I felt like I could easily put it down after two or three chapters at a time.

For one thing, the world building isn’t very impressive. But I suppose readers are given as much as possible, considering the main character is new to the world herself, confined to few places, and kept in the dark about much. The real let down for me was that I struggled to connect with Brie and I wasn’t into any of her love interests either. I found one of them sappy (but sus) and the other arrogantly sus. As for the plot, I saw the big revelation coming early on and I’m usually wrong about those things... but I did like the way the book ends because it sets the stage for a more compelling installment to follow.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend These Hollow Vows, but if you‘re into YA fantasy and love triangles, it might be worth the read. Your experience could be the opposite of mine!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Homophobia, Slavery, and Trafficking

kbairbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

Trying to write reviews for the books I read are always so hard. Every time I tell myself I’m gonna make small notes as I go so my reviews can be more focused on the story etc itself and not on my emotions BUT I still haven’t started doing that lol I really loved this story! It was genuinely fun! I had a blast reading this and couldn’t put it down. I can’t freaking wait for next summer because I need my hands on book two NOW. I need to know! I will definitely be rereading this book when I get book two. Because there are too many things I want to say but can’t right now. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent and Trafficking