Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

59 reviews

carleesi's review against another edition

4.5

I loved the world and the magic of the Graces. The characters were wonderful and the creation of a villain without the need for specific graphic descriptions of his violence was refreshing to read.

I wish there’d been more female characters - in the beginning Katsa was giving me “not like other girls” vibes. 

The ending is great and makes some amends for the lack of female characters in the story. I loved the challenging of heteronormative expectations as well - having a female protagonist who doesn’t want kids or care about marriage will always grab my heart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Ableism and Animal cruelty

Minor: Sexual violence

claudiamacpherson's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Ableism, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Grief, Misogyny, Vomit, Outing, Sexual harassment, Sexism, and Torture

ducklingh's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

One of the best books I've read in a while. I loved it! The author did a great job of getting the reader to realize the plot twists as the characters did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gaslighting, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Incest, and Death of parent

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

the main character has numerous fight scenes which are detailed, but not overly gorey, main character is forced to hurt innocent(ish) people,

the main villain is very heavily implied to be a pedophile who wants to rape his 10 year old daughter and who raped a 10 year old servant to get to his wife - not graphic, in fact if a child were to read this they might not know what is going on

crufts's review

adventurous mysterious 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

4.5

In a world where some people are magically Graced with talents and powers, Katsa is a noble who has the Grace of killing. Ever since learning of her ability, her uncle King Ransa has controlled her life and ordered her to do his bidding as his pet assassin. But as she grows weary of carrying out Ransa's cruel orders, Katsa sees a chance for escape when she meets a mysterious foreign prince with a Grace of his own...

There's a lot to compliment about Graceling:

• The narrative hooked me from the start! I ended up reading the entire book in a matter of days. That's pretty rare for me!
• The fantasy setting is easy to absorb and understand; for example, the realm's kingdoms are mnemonically named (Wester = west, Nander = north, Estill = east, Sunder = south, Middluns = center, Monsea = mountains).
• Exciting, dynamic fight sequences, especially the unarmed combat passages.
• Interesting Good vs Good conflicts, where there's real tension because both sides have a point. e.g.
  Po concealing the truth about his Grace.
• Nice subversion of romance tropes when
  Katsa's childhood friend Prince Raffin
    doesn't end up as Katsa's romantic interest.
• The protagonist is exceptionally powerful, but so are the forces against her, so the stakes of the story felt balanced.
• The elements used in the later parts of the story are all foreshadowed and introduced near the beginning.

Graceling sticks to the fundamental writing principles that make a book fun to read. It's just a well-written story, plain and simple. I've docked half a star because the climactic showdown scene at the end could be improved by stretching it out longer, and there are one or two other issues, but this didn't detract much from my enjoyment overall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Incest and Child abuse

Stacks of violence, especially from our killing-Graced protagonist.
There are a few fade-to-blacks between the romantic leads.
Some people suspect that a villain is abusing children.

A couple of villains actually try to molest children, but the heroes stop them before it happens. I consider this a good thing in contrast to other books where the villains are not stopped in time - the creepy characterization is still just as effective when the villain fails, and you avoid alienating your readers.

battybookworm's review

adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

This book! Rereading this was a delight, I think Katsa was a big deal for me when I read this as a teen. Now reading her character feels nostalgic and familiar. I can’t wait to continue with this series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, and Death of parent

bdingz's review

adventurous hopeful tense slow-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

3.75

I wasn’t sure about this book when I first started it, but I warmed up to it and ended up staying up late to finish reading. Interested to see how the author explores this world in her other books.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Child abuse and Death of parent

sonambuorion's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Torture, and Physical abuse

zngzag's review

adventurous dark 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gaslighting

Moderate: Physical abuse, Kidnapping, and Child abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

tindra_jallhage's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious

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

4.0

Great book but I hated the romance. Katsa is a lesbian and no one can conivince me otherwise

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

4.0

This is a YA novel with an aspec protagonist (my best guess is she'd say demi if that language were available) who ends up in a relationship with someone who meets her on her terms rather than demanding she meet his. It's nice to see an aspec character whose aro/ace nature isn't overwritten or ignored in order to give her a relationship, how she is is part of how they are together.

It's about loneliness, abuse, and healing, including abuse to children and animals, so please be aware that those are major themes in the book. 

The world building is solid, with enough detail to make later revelations feel important. The explanations feel natural, occurring as something happens or Katsa thinks of some detail. This makes it feel like the world is slowly being revealed even though early on it's not new to the protagonist. I like Po, he had a difficult set of things to balance and overall I like how he is with Katsa. His situation towards the end skirts some potentially problematic ableist tropes but manages to not make it seem like his late-acquired disability is what gives him greater control of his powers. YMMV on whether this works, I think it does because of the precise order of events.

Overall I like this a lot and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Blood, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Animal death, Death of parent, and Child death

Minor: Sexual content and Sexual assault