Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

66 reviews

spineofthesaurus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Torture, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Self harm, Stalking, Violence, Medical trauma, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Outing

Moderate: Ableism, Abortion, Alcoholism, Genocide, Murder, Excrement, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual assault, Racism, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Animal death, and Hate crime

Minor: Xenophobia, Alcohol, Slavery, Deadnaming, Classism, and Colonisation

haunted_jackalope's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.5

Slow books aren't my favorite, but the story was worth it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Child abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Confinement, Cursing, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Pregnancy

Minor: Torture, Abortion, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

cassiopeia_lucky_fowkes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-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 is AMAZING I have read it twice now, I love it so much! 

You end up falling in love with the characters like they are you own Sisters (note the capital S) 
Only read if you are okay with crying for ten minutes at various parts of the book (this happened to me both times I read it!)

It has an amazing plot with lots of plot twists that grip and pull you into the story and dont let you go until its done

I wish this book had a sequal!

Also the writing style is amazing, there is the perfect amount of description to allow you to imagine sort of the more fine details in how a character looks for example but also gives you a good base 
the settings are also described in this way

I cant tell you how much I love this book tbh it changed the way I look at everything and changed my life too!

I highly recommend to any feminist out there.

Let the fire inside your heart continue to burn and let this book help it to burn brighter with fury, love, hate and hope.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Abortion, Cursing, Alcohol, Death, Toxic friendship, Blood, Pregnancy, Body shaming, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia

I put all the content warnings in graphic because i dont have time to sort them! Also some are so minor they are only one sentence or word

tormerritt's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This book was truly magical from start to finish! I was already expecting a well-written book because I am in love with Harrow's gorgeous writing style from 'The Ten Thousand Doors of January', but I was not expecting such a beautifully woven story with so many profound elements to it. I can tell so much work went into the writing of this book!

It is 1893, and we follow the Eastwood Sisters who are discovering their witchcraft and using the power of spells and storytelling to share their "words and ways". Ultimately, turning a women's movement into a witches' movement! The bravery and strength of the many women in this book were incredibly inspiring! The story deals with some heavier subjects like trauma, abuse, racism, violence, abortion, pregnancy/birth, and constraints against women during the 1890s. 

Every character was written so well that they practically jump off the pages! We get to see their struggles, where they are from, who their family and friends are, what has caused their traumas, their thoughts and feelings, and their most vulnerable moments throughout. This made the characters relatable and so human for me. Also, I love the fact that there is LGBTQ/interracial relationship representation. ❤️

There wasn't anything I disliked about this book. I did not want to escape this enchanting world of The Once and Future Witches and I definitely want to form my own society of powerful witches now! Who wants to join? 🧙🏻‍♀️✨️ 


I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone, a new five-star favorite! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Murder, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Death of parent, Violence, Death, Emotional abuse, and Racism

Minor: Abortion

sol84's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

Moderate: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Violence

brindolyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Racism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Sexism

justmys's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

A powerful book that explores the varying pains that women face in their lives. Although it is set in the late 1800s, the plight of the women between the pages is universal and never ending and you'll find yourself empathising with the characters almost from the very beginning.
The book touches upon a myriad of different cultures and lives, exploring their differences and similarities and finding what joins us together in the face of a fight that needs to be won.
You can feel the fire in these pages, it's so beautifully written and feels rooted in history, despite the fiction and magic. It weaves between the marginalised and the long suffering, bringing in LGBTQ+ topics, race inequality, social standing and sex, and it does so with such genuine care and love it's beautiful to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Sexism

schnaucl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

I really like this book.  It's very smartly written with interesting characters and clever tweaks to history and historical figures.  

It's a book that's full of women's rage and the subtle ways they have to hide their power to pass things down through the generations and the never ending cycle of women gaining a measure of power only to have it nearly all taken from them.  But still they endure. 

I appreciated the effort to bring in words and ways from other cultures, both contemporary and historical, and the focus on the fact that progress will eventually cause a reactionary backlash which will fall hardest on the most marginalized.

While I really liked the book, the ending didn't quite work for me.  Well, it works on a thematic level, just not a practical level. I can't think of any reason Gideon would choose to take over the body of a female child.   He is keenly aware of how easy to is to accuse a woman of witchcraft and see her burn, whether she's a witch or not.  I can't see himself putting himself in that position, even temporarily.   Surely he's found some method over the long years of gaining procuring what he needs from the next man (or potential men) whose body he intends to occupy.   I think Eve had to be in some kind of proximity and I'd think it a big gamble that once she was rescued she'd be brought to her mother's burning rather than safely whisked out of the city.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Death, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Violence

Minor: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Physical abuse, Torture, and Abortion

sneakysnam's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Abortion, Child abuse, Misogyny, Colonisation, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Grief, and Kidnapping

Minor: Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death of parent, and Grief

del_phinium's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Misogyny