Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

17 reviews

madmadmaddymad's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I really enjoyed this book!

My favorite sequence is the time Kvothe spent with Felurian. (What can you expect? I’m faerie trash.)  I did not enjoy the Ademre sequence - even though the women are badasses, I still found it somehow misogynistic. Maybe it’s because of Kvothe, and how he tainted the time he spent there by talking about how it’s not proper for women to fight, women where he comes from do not fight, and bemoaning that he was paired to spar with a little girl. I just found that that part of the book really dragged, and even though we spent a lot of time there, I didn’t get close to any of the women, and I didn’t get the feeling that Kvothe really respected any of the women? I was waiting for it to be over, and him to go back to the Maer. Even though I didn’t care much for the court politics and the Maer, I still felt like there was more life in that part of the story than the piece in the Ademre.

But aside from that portion of the book… this was such a captivating and excellent story. I still love the parts with Bast, the Chronicler, and Kvothe-the-tavernkeep the most. It feels so fresh to read a fantasy story this way - to have the days laid out this way, and the story told from the hero’s perspective while a perfect stranger and truly good friend listen in. 

Bast is obviously still my favorite

I love a scary faerie man

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meg0_o's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

beautiful, gorgeous, lovely, perfect. no notes. 

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fisherjam's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

4.5


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proza's review against another edition

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

3.75


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nerdkitten's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious 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


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akirma's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • 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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amelia_d's review against another edition

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

2.5

I'm quite disappointed to be honest, but my feelings about the book are very mixed so it's quite hard to give it a star rating that feels right.
The main positive for me is the incredible, detailed and original world building. I felt really engrossed in the world and loved learning more about how this world works.
For the most part I also found the story very compelling and intriguing, although it is quite scattered in a real-worldy kind of way which I'm aware some people didn't like.

Despite all that, the negatives for me almost made it unreadable at times. The main issue for me was that I found Kvothe thoroughly unlikeable, for most of the book he's constantly bragging about everything he does and how brilliant he is at everything he tries. I found this very grating. However it was almost unreadable due to the way Kvothe talks about women. I won't get into the details so this can remain spoiler free but at times I felt like I was reading a fanfic written by a 14 year old boy or an incel. I was cringing and sending pics to my friends/boyfriend of some paragraphs because I actually couldn't believe what I was reading. It felt very much like reading an incel's sexual fantasy who wishes that they could be Kvothe and I absolutely hated it. (also mild spoiler, there's a bit where Kvothe almost literally says "not all men" to a SA victim, seriously.)
So I am very torn. As I say, the story is compelling and intriguing and the world building is very impressive but at times the writing got so bad in terms of female characters in particular that I really don't know that I could bring nyself to read the 3rd book if it's ever completed.

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darkefyres's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-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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acasiamae's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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superdaintycate's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

This is such a great middle book, even with no final book likely to follow. I love a series that is truly a series and expects you to read the story in order if you read it at all. The language in this book is even more rich and nuanced with whole sections of tricky little iambic cleverness that is not only clever but serves the characterization perfectly. Do I have several dissertations on women and sexual assault in fantasy? Of course I do and I'll leave it to the real academics to do the hard work on that. I hate that I have to give great books a pass in order to read great fantasy by anyone other than NK Jemisin. Please start writing better, everyone else.

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