Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

45 reviews

lubotomy's review against another edition

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

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, Emotional abuse, Rape, Suicide attempt, Death, Violence, Suicide, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Violence, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Torture, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Pedophilia, Animal death, Rape, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Incest, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Self harm, Vomit, Xenophobia, Homophobia, and War

Human and animal experimentation. Strangulation/suffocation. Mind control, overriding/alteration of will (mostly discussed/aftermath). Abuse and sexual violence, including of children, are described frankly, but not extremely actively or graphically depicted on-page.

bencaroline's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Abandonment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, War, Self harm, Sexual assault, Trafficking, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol and Vomit

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

4.0

I liked the depth this book gave to the world but it was quite slow and way too long

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Torture, and Violence

livruther's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Gaslighting, Animal death, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Torture, Animal cruelty, Violence, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death, Pregnancy, and Vomit

queer_bookwyrm'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? No

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: violence, torture, murder, domestic violence, PTSD/anxiety, rape mention, child sexual abuse mention, suicide, self-harm mention, animal cruelty mention

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore is book 3 in the Graceling Realm series. As much as I liked this book, it was so much darker than the previous two books. Definitely check content warnings before reading. Cashore has a fantastic way of world building slowly through a story. The way she's able to expand and follow different timelines and keep everything straight is a feat unto itself. 

We follow Bitterblue 8 years after the events of Graceling and almost 49 years after the events in Fire. Bitterblue is now Queen of Monsea, but is kept sheltered and ignorant about her subjects and her queendom. As she learns how much she doesn't know, she discovers the lingering pain of Leck's influence has caused someone to kill truthseekers who want to know what happened during Leck's reign. Bitterblue finds the task of remembering and honoring the past and moving forward so as not to trigger people unnecessarily, to be almost insurmountable. 

There is a lot of plot that happens in this book, as well as plot set up for the other books. I love the characters that Cashore creates! I loved seeing Po and Katsa again along with some new names, like Giddon (what a softie), and Death (pronounced to rhyme with teeth) the librarian who our curmudgeonly librarian with a Grace I wouldn't mind having. So much happened in this book, that I can't talk about it all without spoilers. 

I love that Cashore makes it explicit in her books that women have the choice to not bear children. In Graceling, Katsa takes medicine that makes it so she will never be pregnant, and Bitterblue takes herbs to prevent pregnancy. She also gives a background sapphic couple and Achillean couple. Cashore also casually includes background characters with disabilities. She does acknowledge at the end of the book that she made a mistake writing Po losing his sight at the end of book one. She admits that she wasn't thinking about disability politics at the time and wasn't aware she was stumbling into "curing" Po's visual disability with his Grace, and apologizes for it. 

So excited to get to Winterkeep and where Cashore will take us next! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Torture, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Medical trauma, and Violence

Minor: Self harm, Rape, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

g_c_geeks's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

Ok so maybe there’s some issues with pacing but it did not bother me. I loved reading about all the political and social structures within the world, and loved spending time with these characters. 
It was a really good continuation of Graceling and Fire and built upon what happened years later. I really enjoyed it. 
I think about this world all the time and will have a place in my heart forever. 
Keep in mind though that you find out some very dark and disturbing confirmation of what Leck has done. 
I’m going to read Winterkeep (the fourth book in the series) for the first time and am very curious on what Cashore will continue to develop. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Murder, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child death, Medical trauma, Suicide, Self harm, Child abuse, Sexual assault, War, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Death, and Adult/minor relationship

sonshinelibrarian's review against another edition

5.0

Ugh. This book. It is SO dark and so good. I loved Bitterblue in Graceling, so I was so excited to have her be the main character of her own book and she did not disappoint. I also loved seeing some of the other characters again. But dealing with the after effects of a ruler like Leck would be utterly devastating and this book does not shy away from those things at all, but it doesn't do it for no purpose. I loved the overarching theme about dealing with trauma and how to move forward while realizing that you have to acknowledge the past. 

This is definitely one of those kinds of books that could be difficult and even triggering for some people to read, so while this is definitely my favorite of the three so far, take your own past experiences into consideration when deciding whether to read this book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Grief, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicide, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty

roseofphantom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.5

Holy ----!  This was MUCH darker than I expected it to be!!

Much better than "Fire".  While it still isn't up there with "Graceling", I definitely enjoyed the story and characterizations more.  It was nice to return to beloved characters, to see Bitterblue grown up and having taken on Queenly duties.  Seeing her after Po and Katsa essentially raised her was a delight and she's definitely become a wonderful Queen.  Her relationship with Saf felt real and natural.  I also enjoyed the little bit of mystery as she investigates her father's doing and tries to clean up her Kingdom after his terrors.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Minor: Animal cruelty

child sexual assault

battybookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

Rereading these books has truly been a delight. I am now unsure if I ever actually finished it previously but either way, this book had me til the very end this time! It’s such a useful book on recovery and how one can hold onto hope after devastating happenings occur. Cashore weaves past characters in beautifully and engages each in a way that makes their character fuller and more interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Slavery, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, and Gore

This book, like it’s predecessors, discusses very dark topics. If you’ve read Graceling and Fire, this focuses heavily on the repercussions of decisions in those novels as well as what happened and happens after King Leck’s reign.

the abuse of people (particularly children) and animals as well as their deaths/bones are discussed frequently and in great detail through journal entry style or medical analysis. There’s some implication of danger towards Bitterblue as a child, but otherwise there’s no pedophelia/incest in the novel.

There are many character deaths and violent scenes.