Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Into the Heartless Wood by Joanna Ruth Meyer

1 review

madarauchiha's review

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dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

0.25

 β€οΈ 🧑 πŸ’› πŸ’š πŸ’™ πŸ’œ  my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara πŸ’œ πŸ’™ πŸ’š πŸ’› 🧑 ❀️

I don't like how the female mc is, like, becoming tamed and civilized and more human. This feels like a very gross born sexy yesterday trope. and I hate it. I genuinely hate that the female mc is useless and the male mc has to tell her she can do things and be her own person and etc etc. like we get it author, you hate feminism and independent women. It's not that every story has to have perfect, flawless characterization and rep. It's that it's not even done well, in this book. Seren doesn't feel like she has an impulsion on her own. She defies her family but she needs the male MC to tell her it's ok to do this. It's just so irritating how useless she is.

Oh, and
the way the 

Seren character 

speaks 
is irritatingly 
formatted. 

That the pacing 

the pacing

is super 
slow 

super slow

doesn't help 
this.


What I liked is the concept of the plot, how something traumatic happens and it's not glossed over or romanticized, and that the book finally fucking ended. That's about it.

The villains feel comical and nonsensical. Not necessarily a bad thing, I guess, since this is YA genre. But it definitely feels aimed towards 10-15 yo children. If you're older than that, please temper your expectations.

I genuinely hate that there's a single token Black character. God, why did you bother if you're not going to give him a decent backstory, a culture, a personality beyond only helping the mc.

 - "Baines has dark brown skin, and is built like a bear, ridiculously strong from a lifetime working his parents’ farm."

This is the token black character btw. He's darkskinned, extremely muscular, and works on a farm. I'm so surprised the author didn't go for other racist stereotypes, like having him enjoy large, red fleshed, green skinned fruit, or singing religious songs. Too on the nose, author?

People [and the author] compared this to 'Beauty and the Beast' and I gotta disagree. Just because a human fell in love with a inhuman monster doesn't mean it's 'BatB'. I could very easily say oh, this is 'The Shape of the Water [2017]' except on land and it'b be just as true as people calling this a 'BatB' retelling. You gotta do more than a single similar plot point. Unless you're telling me the King Elnon [sp??] fell in love with a 17 yo boy child and he's the Gaston of this 'BatB' version?? I.... bitch.... :/ no.

I don't understand how a war fighting scene can be so boring. I think the problem is that the writing is constantly minimalistic [a la Seren's sections] so when the author tries to convey brief depicts of something shocking, it doesn't pop. There's no contrast between the shocking imagery and the rest of the scene.

I want to commit violence either on the author or the editor or in general for how poorly this is formatted. This could have been thirty chapters shorter if it weren't

for
typing
like
this
constantly
and

its
so
fucking


annoying.


stop.

the writing feels like 
shitty
tumblr poets
ripping 
off rupi 
kaur 
poems.


Content warnings:
medium guns / gun violence
major child abuse, torture, body horror, gore, murder, medical abuse, experimentation, torture, train accident / train derailment, death, parental death, 

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