Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

43 reviews

strubbries's review against another edition

The beginning of this book is painful to read. It’s so slow for me, and i like slow reads! but i think after the first two books, this one was just so different and dragged on. too many questions and the rate at which they were getting answered was not a good balance. once i suspected that

Giddon and her would get together

i asked reddit if it would happen, and once that was confirmed, i honestly decided to stop reading because fuck

with my whole entire heart i hate that man and how he downplayed Katsa ‘having a grudge’

. so i spoiled the ending and discoveries so i didn’t have to read the rest. and honestly, im still a bit confused at it. i get it but i dont? i think a talk about this with someone who also read it would be amazing because there were so many moving parts to Leck’s reign and story that could be picked apart.
Now, i skipped pages to get the info i wanted on my kindle, and i ended up reading like 50 pages toward the very end. and oh my goodness, the ongoing trauma that Bitterblue experiences, wow. she did not catch a break at all. it was like boom boom boom

Theil kills himself, Rood hangs himself, new foreign people come along, etc etc

!!! i was tearing up and crying at many parts there because the amount of emotional weight that that girl is carrying throughout the whole fucking book. So; in the end, i liked the first two books a lot. though i didn’t finish this book, i know what happens and its still a bit of a thinker even when you have the puzzle pieces-ha, get it? I do not plan to read the last two books 🤷‍♀️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Child death, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, and Torture

Minor: Vomit, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury

fabmom_24's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Self harm, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, Torture, and Suicide

emilycfox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Rape, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Torture

Extremely abusive father, extreme gaslighting

how_sweet_the_sound's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-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 is one of my all-time favorite books and has been since middle school. It’s the story of a young queen bringing literacy back to her kingdom despite the push back she receives from all angles. There are multiple over-arching mysteries to be solved and the plot develops like no other book I’ve read. The characters have so many pieces to them that I feel are unique and purposeful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, and Physical abuse

caitander's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This one is a lot darker than the other ones in the series so far. It deals with really intense topics surrounding the characters trauma and is very political. There’s a lot of discovery happening in this story, both about information and being lied to and Bitterblue’s discovery of herself. I enjoyed her journey and seeing how her strength in this book reflects back to her experiences in Graceling. The world is so rich and it’s so interesting to learn more about

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Self harm, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Murder, Suicide, Violence, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, Domestic abuse, and Animal death

qrschulte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

AHHHH! I didn’t want to put this down! I just NEEDED to know all the secrets! And there were some very lovable secondary characters added ❤️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Murder, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Dysphoria, Blood, Child death, Animal death, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore

Minor: Pregnancy, Vomit, War, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

guessgreenleaf's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Grief, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Medical trauma, and Alcoholism

jentrythelibrarian's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Self harm

Moderate: Murder and Rape

imds's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Ableism, Body horror, Classism, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Trafficking, Violence, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Alcoholism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Confinement, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

shinysylveon's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

1.75

If I were to break down the structure of this book into 6 parts, for me this amounted to 1 part mystery, 1 part romance, 1 part self-discovery, and 3 parts epilogue for Graceling and Fire.

The entire premise of this book is Bitterblue navigating being Queen in the aftermath of her father’s tyrannical reign. How do you rule a kingdom where everyone is suffering from PTSD?

On paper, the concept seems cool. Instead of just a paragraph or a few pages summarizing “what happened after”, you get a full book. The problem with that is it’s boring. It felt like there was too much happening and therefore nothing got the focus it really deserved. But on that same note, it also felt like nothing was really happening? It’s very bizarre to describe. 

It just didn’t feel like Bitterblue’s book, or her story. It felt like an epilogue to Katsa’s and Leck’s story. It felt like a side character fumbling around trying to figure out how to be a main character, while the actual main character is off having another adventure. Bitterblue was more intriguing as a child in Graceling, and even in the flashbacks than she is in present day. 

Po was still fun in this for the most part. Katsa, however, was extremely annoying and immature. Though to be fair, immaturity is part of her character, it is just more acutely apparent without the aid of her internal monologue cushioning it. It also didn’t help that the Audiobook narrator gave her this weird Scottish accent that no one else has and that Katsa didn’t have in the original audiobook.

This was definitely riding off the coattails of the other two books. The parts about Leck and discovering all the horrible things he did were extremely interesting. Everything else? Meh. My original rating of 3 stars was super generous, changing it to 2 (which is still generous). Here’s hoping the next one is better. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Self harm, Torture, and Suicide