Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Tower of the Swallow by Andrzej Sapkowski

7 reviews

excepto's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Mam wrażenie że Sapkowskiemu, piszącemu książkę w której nic się nie dzieje, a czyny prawie wszystkich bohaterów nie mają wpływu na ostateczną sytuację, udaje się dalej opowiedzieć historię o wielu rzeczach.
Czuję, że im bardziej czytam tym bardziej wiem czemu mi nie leży adaptacja serialowa, wiedźmin to w małym stopniu historia o zabijaczu potworów, bardziej o politycznych intrygach, na szczeblu głów państw, jak i drobnych rzezimieszków. Najgorszymi potworami stałe są ludzie, którzy nie powstrzymują się przed niczym.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Cursing, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Child abuse, Torture, Transphobia, Drug use, Infidelity, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Animal death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, War, and Xenophobia

camoo3032's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.25

One of the things I love about this series is the different perspectives that Sapkowski chooses to tell the story from. In this book there are several different perspectives which almost makes the book read as a collection of interwoven short stories. It's very clever and engaging but I did find it disorienting the first time.
It's also the most gruesome novel in the series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Pedophilia, Torture, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Misogyny, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Ableism, Drug use, and Homophobia

Minor: Confinement, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Sexism, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Vomit, War, Child death, Classism, Transphobia, Biphobia, Excrement, Miscarriage, Grief, Pregnancy, Abortion, Abandonment, and Sexual content

upthestairs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Death, Gore, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Torture, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual assault, Classism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, Cursing, Death of parent, Sexual violence, War, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Animal death

Minor: Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Eating disorder, and Infidelity

fiveredhens's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

1.75

favorite quotes:

'It's revolting! Revolting and sinful, Mr Houvenaghel, to be utilising a building which was once a place of worship for such an immoral, inhuman and disgusting practice! Animals also feel, Mr Houvenaghel! They also have their dignity! It's a crime to set animal against animal for the amusement of the common folk in the name of profit!'
'Calm yourself, you pious fellow! And don't meddle in my private enterprise! In any case, no animal shall be baited today. Not a single one! Exclusively people!'
'Oh. Then I do beg your pardon.'

Your vision is a world where people are afraid to venture out after dark; not for fear of cut-throats, but off the guardians of public order. For, after all, the result of all great crackdowns on miscreants is always that the miscreants enter the ranks of the guardians of public order en masse.

'What do you think ought to add to the painting?'
'Draw huge, erect phalluses on the primitive hunters.'

'Will I get Ciri back?'
The answer was immediate.
'You will. Only to lose her at once. And to be clear: forever; irrevocably. Before it comes to that, you will lose everybody who accompanies you. You will lose one of your companions in the next few weeks, perhaps even days. Perhaps even hours.'
'Thank you.'
'I haven't finished yet. The direct effect of your interference in the grinding querns of the Purpose and the Plan will be the death of tens of thousands of people. Which, as a matter of fact, doesn't matter much, since soon after, tens of millions of people will lose their lives. The world as you know it will simply vanish, cease to exist, in order – after a suitable time has passed – to revive in a totally different form. But in fact no one has, nor will have, any influence on it, no one is capable of preventing it nor staving off the course of events. Not you, not l, not sorcerers nor Sages. Not even Ciri. What do you say to that?'
'Purple bison.'

felt like it was kinda misery porn

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Excrement, Gore, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Lesbophobia, and Pedophilia

Minor: Abandonment, Ableism, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Miscarriage, Rape, and Vomit

chronographia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

You’re going to want a map. Seriously, a map; there’s a lot of traveling from here to there and back again. Put a marker in the book and go google the map.

I find it interesting that the author starts using different cadencing and storytelling frameworks to set the various storylines apart. This is useful up to a point, but you are also likely to want a flowchart of characters and events. It’s repeatedly emphasized that this is all running to a particular schedule, with significant dates to mark the pace. Even though the storylines are broadly independent in their flow, still their actions (and inactions) have effects that ripple throughout. It can be tricky to see how they all sync up together, but the author indicates that this is important, so maybe take some notes.

PS: Cahir is unexpectedly growing on me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Slavery, Vomit, and Xenophobia

rachaelbunny's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Slavery, Sexism, Sexual assault, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Misogyny

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Torture, Slavery, Religious bigotry, and Rape

Minor: Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pedophilia

purelytheoretical's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I feel like nothing happened in this book. There are so many plot threads, so many unnecessary ones that tangle in as ways to more complicatedly explain simpler plot threads that already existed, and we're constantly moving forward and back in the course of events in a really distracting and unproductive way that just left me resenting the story I was being told. I'd love to see a breakdown of the POVs used for this book, cause I would bet that we spend half the time or less in the heads of our actual main characters here, Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer. 
There were some fun or interesting moments, for sure, but overall I would not say I had a good time with this book and I can see very clearly now why I never ended up finishing this book the first time around. HIGHLY recommend the audiobook for this one rather than trying to trudge through reading it yourself.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Sexism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia

rape and sexual violence of all sorts is sort of peppered into probably almost every chapter as a way to make the world seem gritty. it isn't described in detail, and I don't believe anyone is actually raped within the text, but it is mentioned often enough that I upgraded it from minor to moderate. the same goes for sexism. both within the world, and a bit within the author's way of describing his female characters. it's not the worst, but it's not great. the adult/minor relationship is very very brief, pretty much doesn't happen at all, but is fairly graphic and we're in the minor's head as she considers entering into it. the pedophilia is slightly less brief but is purely the ramblings of one gross character, and everyone around her finds her "interests" pretty disgusting.