Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

56 reviews

jessoehrlein's review

4.25

A large part of my love for Graceling is nostalgia, but I still find Katsa and her character arc really compelling, and I love the development of her relationship with Po. (And Bitterblue is a delight.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping and Physical abuse

Minor: Child abuse and Child death

qrschulte's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

Oh wow I inhaled this book. It’s so great to find characters I love and a world I can lose myself in. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Kidnapping, Death, Violence, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Child death, Grief, Medical content, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Alcohol

kell_xavi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

4.0

Well-told for the most part, with believable relationships, challenges, and emotions; however, some emotional events carry on a bit long, becoming repetitive and overwrought. I wasn’t convinced of how the plot comes together around the climax, finding too many threads dragged out only to collapse in a surprising moment. Still, Cashore’s girl-driven fantasy novel is mostly successful, smart and sincere, tinged with fear and a good dose of comeuppance to powerful men who do wrong.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Torture, Pedophilia, Murder, and Violence

martin27's review

adventurous hopeful 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? Yes

3.0

The beginning drags on for quite a while, and the middle struck me as just being bland. The ending was very good though. Really everything after the introduction of Princess Bitterblue is good and the rest is not bad but didn’t interest me that much. I expected a much more complex magic system than what the Graces actually are, which is a vague concept that for some people is the ability to read minds or see the future and for others is just being able to swim sort of fast. The world building as a whole is very weak. In fact it’s the weakest point of the novel, I think. The author’s voice is unique and has promise but the world that Graceling is set in just doesn’t have any depth. 

It was fine and isn’t the worst book ever, but I’m not super committed to picking up any of the sequels. I will stress again that Katsa and Bitterblue have a great relationship that was really interesting, and I love that

Katsa, a woman who is committed to remaining childfree and unmarried, is not convinced that she actually did want children all along. Katsa loves kids and was very protective of Bitterblue, but that doesn’t mean she wants to have kids. It was a pleasant surprise to not have her shoved into a motherly role even when she has to take care of a kid for a third of the novel. Bitterblue is like a sister to her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Vomit, Kidnapping, Child abuse, and Blood

Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Misogyny

tigrelilje's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Minor: Sexual content, Torture, Murder, Child death, Animal death, Child abuse, and Animal cruelty

ava_ba's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.25

This book was outstanding I simply don’t care what anyone has to say, Katsa and Po were everything and Bitterblue deserves the planet

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, and Sexism

Minor: Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Body horror, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Medical content, and Murder

frankieclc's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Child abuse

Minor: Pedophilia and Vomit

talasterism's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

read this for winnow who learned abt sexism and uuf boy the beginning was so hard tk getinto but i loveeed the worldhuilding of graced and SURPRSINGLY good heterosexual romance bc po is so emotionally open wth!! the plot ran very smoothly and i loved the end too. its too heavy on sexism and pedophilia for me tho

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Death

Minor: Sexual content and Emotional abuse

imds's review

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder, Torture, Vomit, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Death, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Stalking, Violence, Animal death, Blood, and Body horror

Minor: Child death

jo_d's review against another edition

adventurous funny 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, and Adult/minor relationship