Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Flock

Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Flock by Kate Stewart

28 reviews

tachyon217's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Oh my goodness. Yall, I had my doubts. But, when they say this one is emotionally devastating, they aren't lying. So fantastic. Dirty, steamy, and wow. You won't regret reading this.

Content Warnings

emilibrarian's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Content Warnings

amanda_reads13's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was an interesting story, but I had no clue what was going on majority of the time. This is a Robinhood retelling. The author seemed to be driving home the fact the the FMC was very young and inexperienced. This was evident with her lack of recognition of the manipulation and gaslighting going on in her relationships with Sean and Dom. These relationships were very toxic and were based on lies/lack of communication. I am hoping book 2 will show some maturity/growth in Cecilia.

The whole idea of the Ravenhood was very confusing for majority of the book and, due to the POV, the readers only knew what Cecilia did, which wasn't much. Nothing was really revealed until the end of the book.

Content Warnings

jen1804's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

Not at all well written sadly.
There are a few chapters which I really enjoyed and they are what boosts the rating of this book to a 3. But most of this read is confusing as hell. There’s keeping your audience in the dark in order to create some mystery, and then there’s making your audience so confused that they begin to question whether they’ve missed a whole chapter.
This book also time jumps a lot, it’s very fast paced and there’s large chunks of the timeline that we don’t get any narrative for which is a shame.
I really like Dominic’s character and especially adored the rainy day scenes in bed with a book. Also the float scene is a yes from me🤪. Not a huge lover of the FMC Cecelia and not a fan of Sean if I’m honest, something about his vibe is just a bit off.
Overall this is a meh read and I wouldn’t recommend it to a friend, but it ends on a cliffhanger so annoyingly I now need to read the next one to fully understand what on Earth actually happened in book one.
Satisfactory ending? The chapters leading up to the ending are soooo chaotic and had me making a confused scowly face at the page for an extended period of time. But the ending itself is decent because it’s a cliffhanger.

Content Warnings

crinkledmochi's review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book is one huge white savior complex….

All the men in this book are just huge red flags walking. The main character is 19 for majority of the book very young compared to the men she’s dating/interacting with. Again she is of ‘legal’ age but it’s still very weird. Plus there’s also a relationship hinted between these two side characters that is also on the creepy side as well because they grew up seeing this person.

I feel like the characters in this book try to be woke so bad and just completely miss the mark, and not only is the main character kinda prejudice it just contradicts the whole story’s forced narrative. The men don’t tell her anything and she follows along like a lost puppy (the irony…). The ending was also lackluster in my opinion and I knew from the beginning what direction this would probably go and the execution was not good.

One thing however that I found like-able was the writing style, it felt real and the emotions the characters expressed you could definitely feel from the pages. I definitely feel like the characters in the book could be real life people, everything felt realistic to an extent like people just suck. I wasn’t too sure going into the book if the writing was going to be any good since a lot of booktok recommendations have some of the most illiterate pieces of work I’ve ever read. I was pleasantly surprised.

Content Warnings

niyahneal's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

imthatstephanie's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Listen, I'm sure I'll catch some heat for only giving Flock 3-stars, but I promise! Three stars is still a liked book for me, and I have a feeling it won't be the one I like the most in this series.

It just left me so darn frustrated for most of the book. I came to terms with Cecelia's angst and immaturity. She was turning 19 at the start of the book, and I can only imagine how unpredictable I would have been at that age in this situation.

And the secrets!!! SO. MANY. SECRETS. AND the gaslighting...sheesh. I'm exhausted from the emotional gymnastics these men put her through.

Gah! The relationships are so toxic, but I ate that up. The cliffie at the end had me immediately downloading Exodus, and I spent the entire day with my family feeling like my skin was crawling. I needed to get home and work on this series some more.

So, there, three angst-ridden stars. Welcome to the Ravenhood. sigh...whatever *wink*

Happy Reading!

Content Warnings

janzenriley's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

Content Warnings

caraj's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional tense fast-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

4.75

Wow. Just wow. Riveting, unexpected twists!

Content Warnings

kingrosereads's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

I wanna start by saying that I told myself that I would not DNR a book this year unless the grammar was ridiculously bad or the book was terribly offensive, which is the only reason I finished this book. BookTok really fumbled with this one and I usually find something about the books on there that I liked.

I think we should start off with Sean is the most pretentious fuckboy on the planet. I get not being involved is social media. But serious? Everything about is just SCREAMS toxic bro culture. He smashes her Apple Watch to make a point about technology but it’s also fucking rude? Like we get it, so go live off grid somewhere. He literally compared to living in America to NAZI GERMANY. The Holocaust dude? SERIOUSLY?! Usually when a love interest is described as having blonde hair, he immediately gets re-written in my mind (idk why blonde men are a red flag to me) but he got back his blonde hair REAL QUICK. Then he like made Cecelia feel stupid and unreasonable when she waited SIX HOURS for him after spending the day cooking for him? Miss me with that gaslighting, abusive shit. You can literally get a burner phone. Like what? There was NO WAY you could’ve gotten a message to her? And because she’s upset that means she doesn’t trust you or believe in you or your mission? I was over Sean after their first date.

Now on to Dominic. Like at least he doesn’t pretend to be all lovey dovey and caring like Sean. He’s an asshole through and through. What you see is what you get with Dominic and not only that, the fact he’s so subtle but people notice how loyal and devoted he is to Cecelia, is what makes him sooooo attractive. He believes the same things as Sean, but he’s not shoving it down your throat every damn minute. Also, him and Sean’s fascination with 1984 by George Orwell is so cringe. Immediate red flag. They humiliate Cecelia in public which is such an immediate turn off for me. Like pushing her to force her to become strong for YOUR needs and desires? No thanks.

Cecelia, the protagonist, is so fucking irritating. The entire book I’m just screaming at her to run. She can’t hold her ground at all and immediately forgives these assholes. And to be honest, that’s a pretty accurate representation of a 19 year old (basically a literal child) being taken advantage of by men who are nearly 30 years old. Many women, especially young/inexperienced women, who are preyed on by abusive, manipulative gaslighting assholes, often go back to these dickwads. Though, I’m not sure why the present day (26 year old) Cecelia is returning to this town because of these two guys when she should be old enough to know better.

Look, I don’t know if Roman is truly a bad guy or he’s got some shady people working with or around him, but it does genuinely seem like he wants to make amends with his daughter in the only way he knows how to, but in typical teenage detachment, Cecelia blows him off. I’d do anything to have a dad that tried even 3% and Cecelia rejects him because what? She’s nurturing her daddy problems between two men? Unacceptable.

Also, the writing is like irritatingly cryptic. I’m not sure if that’s the point considering the two men are always cryptic (which is not only a turn off and annoying, but a HUGE red flag) but it’s just such a turn off as a reader.

I immediately figured they were using her to get to her dad, but Dominic’s dead parents being a result of Roman’s negligence or malice is so cliché.

The cliffhanger in this book is not enough to get me to finish the series. Also, Stewart made too many references to whipping/lashes (not referring to the kink) for my liking. The book had zero plot until the last maybe 5% of the book with no tie-in to the prologue at any point during this book so it is easily forgotten and upon recall, makes zero sense. It gets 1 star for the spice and quarter a star for the very minor intrigue.

Content Warnings

More...