Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

22 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug use, Grief, Misogyny, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexism, Murder, Physical abuse, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide attempt, Torture, Abortion, Suicide, and Child death

Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, War, Excrement, and Fatphobia

Needles (tattooing). Illness, unsanitary. Hunting and skinning. Slut shaming, discrimination against sex workers (frequent use of "whore"). Sexual/romantic relationships between pre-teen/teenage girls and adult men, with some victim blaming attitudes toward this. Forced abortion, stillbirth.

magis1105's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is the second time I read the story.  And it was such a fun ride, I enjoyed it a lot more this time around not sure why.
We follow a few different people:
Trader families, the Velstrit mostly, their family feuds and their economic struggles. One of the struggles is to pay off their liveship. Altea has grown up in the ship, her father taking her along his trips. Once the ship wakes, things fall apart around Altea.
WE see a lot of Malta, she is capricious, self-centered, and childish. But she so wishes to be seen as an adult. she keeps making the wrong choices, but to be honest, she doesn't know the reasoning behind her mother and grandmother's choices. The truth is not told to her she is expected to simply listen to her family and obey, they should know that's not going to work. Malta is not easy to work with, when her elders try to talk sense into her, she refuses to believe and ignores what's told to her if it doesn't fit with her opinion. The first time I read this book, oh I disliked her so much I could barely force myself to read the parts where she was the main focus. Now I still think her childish but my dislike is less.

I still hate Kyle, he is such a bad example of a father, husband, son-in-law. I just hate him.

We have pirates, a very ambitious one who wishes to become the King Pirates. And he has a big shining star on his side. Thanks to luck, things start to fall into place for him. 
We follow the POV of the sea serpents, who are drawn to the liveships and are seeking one specific creature, but so far we get only a few snippets and not enough for us to guess the significance unless you already know the big reveal.
So yeah rereading allows me to value these clues a lot more than the first time around. 

I can't wait to get to the next installment of the series.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

kaziaroo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Gore, Slavery, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Trafficking, Violence, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Murder, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Excrement, Confinement, Vomit, Sexual content, and Rape

Multiple graphic limb amputations

kfox's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Emotional abuse, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Slavery

Moderate: Death of parent, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Blood, Abandonment, Bullying, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Trafficking

Minor: Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Rape, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Torture, and Sexual assault

kabrahams's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

5.0

Going into this knowing we wouldn't be following Fitz, I wasn't sure how much I'd like it. But as soon as I started reading, I started asking myself, "Is this the best Robin Hobb book yet?" The characters, the many interweaving plots, the new types of magic--amazing! My heart broke so many times for Wintrow and Althea. I hated Kyle more than I've hated many a villain. And after being disappointed by my pirate books I now know that THIS is exactly what I'm looking for in a pirate book. Can't wait to read more of liveships, sea serpents, pirates, traders, wizard wood, arranged marriage, ancient pacts, and whatever other goodness Robin has in store for us in the rest of this trilogy!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Bullying

Minor: Sexual assault

rayreyes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Murder, Physical abuse, and Sexism

Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, Blood, and Excrement

wolfthorn's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

It's taken me 19 days, but I've finally finished this book. All 897 pages of it. It wouldn't have taken me so long if I'd not switched to reading something else part-way through! I am rather glad to be done with it, it is so incredibly grim. The entire book is full of misfortune and there's only one truly happy moment that I can think of. There are so many irritating characters, even the main two - Althea and Wintrop - are annoying. I think possibly the Vivacia is about the best character in the whole book. But the most infuriating bit was the fact that the book just stopped. It didn't finish with some parts of the storyline resolved, no, it just ended. Grrr. I don't know if I will read the second book. Part of me wants to see Althea get her ship and Kyle get the comeuppance he truly deserves, but I don't know if I can deal with any more misery. Especially not another 850 pages of it.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Slavery

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Drug use

Minor: Alcohol, Death, Excrement, Gore, Physical abuse, and Violence

the_midwest_library's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It's really hard to find a fault with this. I was really worried I was going to enjoy this first installment of this continuation of Hobbs world because it's a new cast of characters from the original trilogy-boy was I wrong. I absolutely loved this. This book has some of the most infuriating characters I've ever read behind those in ASoIaF. I was so furious with the entire first half of the book in the best way possible and couldn't stop myself from reading on. I'm in love with these characters and am racing to start book 2 after that ending. 

The world is amazing, it's fantastic to read a story in the universe we know and love while feeling so rich and contained within its own lore. I can't wait to finish this trilogy. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Rape, and Physical abuse

lynnoleum's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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

5.0

I would give this book a six out of five if I could. Absolutely smashing and riveting. Characters who you can absolutely relate to, love and hate. Hobb has a real gift in immersing the reader so deeply in the character's perspective that gets you empathizing even with the most annoying and terrible characters. It was extremely plotty, with many threads left to pull on to sustain a second or third book and which I shall start on soon. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Slavery, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Drug use, Death of parent, and Blood

aseaoftomes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-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

February 2021 reread: 

For those of you who don't know me, the Realm of the Elderlings (RotE) is a series that means everything to me. It's impossible to review something I love and adore as much as I do. Anything I say about this book won't encapsulate the overall feeling and story, so I'm not going to do my normal routine (fully).

This is the first book in the Liveship Traders trilogy and the fourth book in the overall RotE series and we follow several characters, mostly from the same family (the Vestrits) with a few exceptions. This takes place in another part of the world - primarily Bingtown in this first book and Bingtown is home to merchant families - traders who own these magical ships called liveships (ships that come to life after the third generation of a family member dies aboard the ship). It's full of feminism, pirates, dysfunctional families, political intrigue of a different kind than we had with Fitz and complex relationships of all kinds. 

Every element I normally do in my breakdowns (writing, plot, characters and world building) is just phenomenal. Hobb's characters and world building in particular are some of the best I've read. It's not a simple act of reading these books, you live them.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Animal death

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug use, Excrement, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content