Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

424 reviews

mals_library's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Violence, Emotional abuse, Blood, Domestic abuse, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content and Physical abuse

huntland's review

dark emotional medium-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

deductionist's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

I initially picked up this book out of hype for Evocation. 

I’m incredibly surprised by how much I love this book. The writing at times felt like I was reading poetry, and the characters themselves— flaws and all, felt believable and real. 

I’m hoping they all reunite after sometime and continue their love for one another. 😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Blood

nitterbug's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Domestic abuse

peregrinwho's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

This was so beautiful. A haunting, sublime sort that evoked velvet imagery on every page. It's so easy to get swept up in that kind of beauty, and once they were able to step out of that church, away from worship, the night began to feel like endless warm days.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Confinement and Sexual content

Minor: Murder and War

ann_cathrin's review against another edition

dark 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

4.25

I am not your wife anymore, my lord, and I don’t think you ever truly saw me as a whole woman. I was always a student. A project. An accessory in the legal and decorative sense.

I wanted to cause you a lifetime of inconvenience, dig my heels in the next time you tried to move us, kick and scream when you tried to enforce your curfews. I wanted to fill the cathedral with accusations of every unkind and controlling thing you had ever done to me or Magdalena, and make you answer for them. But instead, all I could say was: “I’m sorry.”

You spun whole personalities out of silken promises to get close to whoever you needed to. It was one of the reasons you were able to keep us alive so long, and one of the reasons I sometimes woke with a start in the middle of the day and stared at you, wondering who I was sharing a bed with.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Murder

bucketsjen's review

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

A tale of Dracula's brides, from the point of view of his first wife Constanta. They are lured by promises of life and freedom and desire... and instead find themselves trapped in an unlife of control and abuse.  It was very well done and darkly engaging. The presentation of an abusive relationship and the complicated emotions/thoughts involved was chillingly legit.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Blood

Polyamory under duress.

elskede's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gaslighting, Grief, War, Terminal illness, Murder, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Blood, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Blood, Domestic abuse, Bullying, and Death

lailybibliography's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

I made you into my private Christ, duplicated with my own dark devotions. Nothing existed beyond the range of your exacting gaze, not even me. I was simply a nonentity when you weren’t looking at me, an empty vessel waiting to be filled by the sweet water of your attention.

A woman can’t live like that, my lord. No one can. Don’t ask me why I did it.

I think this might just be my favourite retelling. The dynamic between Constanta, Magdalena and Alexi is so touching and tragic, soaked in blood yet so enticingly erotic and horrific. I’m left in awe of how S. T. Gibson weaved this masterclass in depicting the centuries-long abuse of these three lost souls by an intricate web of gaslighting, isolation, love-bombing and manipulation. Equal parts a love story and escaping a monster, I am so in love with this novel. I cannot wait to read more of this author’s works.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Blood, Grief, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Gaslighting, Pandemic/Epidemic, Emotional abuse, and Confinement

Moderate: Infidelity, Body horror, and War

Minor: Sexual content

psychominnie624's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

To those who escaped a love like death, and to those still caught in its grasp: you are the heroes of this story.

Constanta was never the focus of the original story but in this retelling she finds her strength and love in the partner's that she never asked for but who love her in ways that save her from the monster who claimed to do so. 

This book does not hold back from the brutality of the tale and I urge readers to look at the content/trigger warnings to make sure they are in the right headspace before reading. 

Through the use of unaddressed letters we see Constanta struggle to find herself when forced into a new life by the villain we all recognize, but who is never named he is simply "you." Her relationships with Magdalena and Alexi are a source of hope but also a mirror that forces her to see the reality around her. The relationship dynamics are compelling and the prose is evocative and beautiful even at the most tragic points. 

Many quote the stripping of his name but for me this has stuck 

I simply broke under the weight of a thousand tense nights, a thousand thought-less, soul-stripping words. I felt like I was losing my mind in that place, and eventually my desire to do something about it, anything about it, outweighed my fear of you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Misogyny and Violence

Minor: Blood