Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

24 reviews

librarianmage's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, and Death

Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, Confinement, and Medical content

Minor: Abortion

accovino's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.0

I enjoyed a lot of the ideas in this, but there were just too many places it bugged. I'm sick of reading about Salem, I'm bored by "what if [Historical Figure] but GENDER SWAPPED" and "what if [Historical Figure] but SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT NAME" and

the expendable character being the one who didn't fall in love

and the badass Black *supporting* character… Also it took me way too long to get into it, and WAY too long to remember who was who. I like that the tower is

a library

. I like that there is a trans character, minor though she is. I like that there is at least a mention of White women's history of one-sided "solidarity" and magic hidden in the open simply because women's work is never taken seriously. I just... I feel like someone needed to come in hard with the red pen and whip this into shape. I feel like "set in our world so I don't have to explain everything, but also everything is different" is a cop-out and a really irritating one for some reason? But mostly I just.. I really wanted to like this more than I did.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Grief

Minor: Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Racism

purplatypus's review

dark inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Kidnapping, and Torture

Moderate: Abortion, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexual assault

Minor: Domestic abuse and Transphobia

domtheknight's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I cried 3 times.
This book has pretty dark and graphic depictions of the suffocating fragility of the patriarchy.
It ends happily! Mostly. But it's a rough ride.
There's also sacrifice, and trying to change the world, and sisterhood and motherhood and community, loving something bigger than yourself, consequences and whether or not they are worth it, and the power of stories.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Sexual assault, and Medical content

Minor: Transphobia and Torture

There's a fairly harrowing birth scene where the life of the mother is in danger both from bad doctors (1893 style medical ignorance, plus imprisoned woman shackled to bed) and from being a witch and a wanted person, and just from a hard birth that would have been hard even without all that. There's also then a very sick infant and a kidnapped infant used to threaten the mother and aunts. I'm guessing this falls into some broader warning category but it's a lot!