Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

33 reviews

mariadanna's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Blood, and Gun violence

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Racial slurs, and War

Minor: Torture

tahsintries's review against another edition

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, Child death, Confinement, and Racism

Minor: Rape

daniellestarredpages's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Review to come

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, and War

Moderate: Death of parent and Torture

foreverinastory's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This is a sprawling slow paced military fantasy. The Unbroken explores the facets of colonisation/imperialism and all of the consequences in gritty details. The story starts off slow and stays that way for a while, but if you can invest the time in it, it's well worth it.

Touraine was stolen as a child and raised in the Balladairan empire. The only loyalty she has is to her fellow Sands, the other stolen Qazali child soldiers. Now that Touraine has been sent back to her homeland she has reckon with the ties she thought were gone and what rebellion means. Princess Luca needs to get her uncle off the throne. If she can stop the rebellion in Qazal, it will prove she's ready to ascend the throne. But negotiating peace comes at a higher price than she expects.

I am really glad I took my time with this book. I loved getting to know Touraine, the Sands, the Qazali and the whole world. It was immersive and I constantly wanted to know more about this world and the magic. Touraine makes a lot of mistakes and difficult decisions throughout this book. It was quite messy, but seeing the way her loyalties kept her torn between the Balladairan Empire and the Qazali felt realistic and truly illustrates how insidious colonisation is.

I wouldn't really categorize this as a romance, though there are some romantic relationships in this. I don't really know how to feel about the possibility of Luca and Touraine, especially after the end. There is definitely a power imbalance here and while Luca is a nice person, there's lived experiences she'll never understand. Plus throughout this we see Touraine constantly have to sacrifice those close to her, but Luca is constantly insulated from this choice. I guess the jury is still out on this ship for me, but I'm very invested in these characters future journeys, especially Touraine.

Rep: Sapphic BIPOC female solider MC, sapphic disabled female MC who uses a cane periodically, BIPOC supporting cast, wlw side characters, nonbinary side character, queer normative world.

CWs: Animal death, blood, colonisation/imperialism, confinement to prison cell, cursing, death, genocide, grief, gun violence, injury/injury detail, murder, racial slurs, racism, torture, violence, war. Moderate: fire, kidnapping, medical content, attempted/threatened rape, sexual harassment, slavery (forced enlistment of conquered people). Past mentions of child abuse/death by the military. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Medical content, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Slavery

Minor: Child abuse and Child death

madamepincers's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Incredible world building and magic system and I can't wait to read more. Only drawback for me was characters who consistently make Very Bad Choices and change their minds/seem to adhere to different moral codes at different times, but given the context, I think their confusion and issues with determining their own priorities was believable. But it happens to be a major pet peeve of mine so 👀

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Vomit, Trafficking, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol, Torture, Kidnapping, Gun violence, and Death of parent

firefly's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Racism, and Blood

Moderate: Ableism, Torture, Rape, and Child abuse

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

herfleurs's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

"Every empire demands revolution."

Luca é uma das personagens mais nojentas que já li. Eu nunca vou entender porque a autora achou que seria interessante criar um romance entre essas duas, juro. Era muito improvável que eu fosse aceitar qualquer arco de redenção que fosse dado pra ela mas o melhor é que não existe nenhum!
 Ela é uma princesa colonizadora, ladrona do começo ao fim. Ela tem umas falas e pensamentos nas narrações que são imundos. 

É tão problemático essa relação das duas. E Luca é tão manipuladora, a cena da página 351 me deu tanta raiva. Me dá agonia. Touraine nos primeiros 50% é essa personagem completamente assimilada, ela busca tanta aprovação dessas mulheres brancas que são a representação do império que da vontade de gritar. A autora coloca Luca dando a liberdade dela gente, literalmente tornando ela cidadã e pensando "talvez" eu faça isso com alguns outros, sabe. Isso porque ela pediu porque duvido que em nenhum momento Luca ia pensar nisso. 

Odiei como praticamente tudo foi tratado aqui. Eu deveria ter conhecido mais do batalhão da Touraine, ter entendido muito mais da cultura dessa cidade. Ter visto muito mais da rebelião, muito mais da magia. Mas tudo foi raso. É bem escrito mas não é suficiente. 

E o final? Péssimo. Horrível. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Racial slurs, Death, and Blood

Minor: Rape, Animal death, Child abuse, and Child death

candidceillie's review against another edition

5.0

literally all of the CWs for this one. It's a hard book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Terminal illness, Slavery, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Kidnapping, Genocide, and Forced institutionalization

booksthatburn's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

THE UNBROKEN is a tale of colonialization, uprising, and a stolen child returning to her homeland as a conscripted soldier ordered to bring it to heel. Touraine is one of the Sands, the term for Qazāli people stolen as children and raised to be soldiers by the Balladaire. This puts her in the position of being used to enforce restrictions on the people she came from. Events early in the book remove her from the Sands, the people she's lived with, fought alongside, and bled with all her life to instead be in service to princess Luca. The rest of the book explores Touraine's confused attempts to figure out what she wants and what she's willing to die for, as well as Luca's desperate attempts to hold on to power through the slim thread of her uncle's distant regard and her subordinates' loyalty. One of the strengths of THE UNBROKEN is it highlights the way that someone who is marginalized in their own group but has power and privilege over another group often uses that relative power to gain a sense of control by oppressing someone else. Luca's physical disability and precarious political position lead her to make harsher choices in order to not appear weak, something that would probably be less on her mind if she weren't constantly worried about people mistaking her physical impairment for lack of will. 

The tension between Luca and Touraine is very well handled, as throughout the story their dynamic as a pair constantly shifts, but they're never quite on the same page about the nature of their relationship. It showed over and over how no matter how attracted they might be to each other, the gulf of power between Luca's position and Touraine's means that it's impossible to trust any "Yes" from Touraine when Luca can have her tortured or killed for a "No". This affects everything from their mutual attraction to the treatment of the Sands to the handling of the rebels. 

I love the portrayal of the Qazāli rebels, I can't discuss much there without spoilers but they were dynamic as a group and as individuals, each with their own reactions to Touraine and Luca's various intrusions on their lives, as well as the reality of life under Balladaire's oppressive colonial rule. 

I'm looking forward to the sequel, I'm a little worried that it'll only get worse for the characters from here but I want to know what happens next.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Torture, Violence, and Colonisation

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Grief, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Terminal illness

Minor: Child death, Rape, and Suicide

CW for major character death (graphic).

bookishbutch's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

You know that one Lady Gaga GIF  where it's her going "amazing incredible never the same etc."? That's me at this book. Man oh man was this a brilliant debut that literally left me breathless. I'm not even sure how to describe this book besides absolutely stunning. If you love political fantasies that tackle colonialism, imperialism, racisms, found family, a unique magic system, lovable, complex characters and a very messy wlw relationship then I highly, highly recommend this book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Genocide, Gun violence, Murder, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual content, and Rape