Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Darling Girl by Liz Michalski

30 reviews

carmen_kroschel's review

1.5

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The first couple chapters were interesting but then I found it get to be repetitive and every chapter seemed to end with a cliffhanger. Afterward if just took a huge turn for the worse where I felt that the Peter Pan character was unnecessarily cruel and aggressive and evil, and this is coming from someone who reads a lot of true crime. It just seemed to be over the top but it didn't seem to serve a purpose. Also the subplot surrounding her daughter left a lot to be wanting. I very strongly did not like the conclusion she had with her daughter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault

stormeno's review

4.0

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol

sydthewitch's review against another edition

3.25

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Fantastic story, medium writing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Police brutality, Pregnancy

Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexism, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War

dragoninwinterfell's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Darling Girl really is a mixed bag and a true 2.5 star book. There was so much I loved about it and there were so many ways it fell horribly short.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol

livvy_alipat's review

5.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol

rachelfaye's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Loveable characters: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death

lexihworth's review

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Violence, Medical content, Stalking, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse

thebookgoblinhoard's review

1.5

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This book turned into a hate read even before half way. The main character Holly is just plain unlikable and can’t further her plot without the men in her life otherwise she just whines and runs in circles. Peter Pan himself can be a villain but the way it was handled here was very icky and left a bad taste in my mouth. Hook was really the only likable person in this book even if his characterization was shallow and used solely for a romance that had no flavor and was very unneeded. 

The plot dragged so many times throughout this book to the point it felt like the author ran out of ways to end it so she just resorted to do the final resolution off page as the easy way out. A lot was left unexplained on why the Darlings were special in the first place and why so many people in their lives reflect characters from the Peter Pan book. In short I have read better dark and twisted adaptations of fairytales and this wasn’t even close to being it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Child abuse

telstsia's review

3.0

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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Interesting concept, but it dragged in some parts and I feel like it could have used a bit more trimming. Was also disappointed that the end was very "tell, don't show " so it really didn't have a strong resolution. The main characters did seem very human though, if not frustrating at times. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Child abuse

emilyjeanne's review

0.25

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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DONT WASTE YOUR TIME

Main character is a textbook helicopter parent, and can’t figure out why her kid keeps pushing her away. She’s described as having multiple PhDs, but is somehow so, so stupid. She also kept mentioning she’d do ANYTHING for her kids, but never actually did anything, just threw money at other people to do stuff for her. 

I could not root for her as a protaganist because I really just could not stand her character, and all the other characters fell completely flat. They had no personalities, and none of them really progressed the plot at all.

Also, this book has a huge amount of content that should come with content/trigger warnings but doesn’t.

CW: sexual assault, drug use, death of a minor, forced medical testing on minors, suicidal ideation, death of a spouse, kidnapping. 

Honestly there’s probably more but this book was so bad I can’t even remember them all, since most of them had nothing to do with the plot anyway.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail