Reviews tagging 'Dysphoria'

La congregazione reale di sua maestà by Juno Dawson

26 reviews

traa's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Murder, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Violence, War, Death, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Fatphobia and Outing

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

alexiab's review against another edition

challenging funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I'm breaking my self imposed review hiatus for this book because I am ABSOLUTELY LOSING MY MIND OVER HOW GOOD IT WAS. Every single aspect is just OUTSTANDING.

While there are a ton of excellent commentaries happening throughout this story about racism, homophobia, transphobia, and sexism there is also an INCREDIBLE fantasy plot with exciting action and heartstopping twists. I can't BELIEVE the exciting and emotional way it ended, and I am champing at the absolute bit for the next book. I'm obsessed with this writing, the balance of character study/women's fiction aspects, world building, and fast paced plot is fabulous. I would read another one of these books for the characters alone, but THAT PLOT! OOOOH THAT PLOT SHE IS SPICY SHE IS EXCITING SHE IS DESTROYING MY VERY SOUL FROM THE INSIDE OUT.

And god, the social commentary on trans women and their place in women's spaces? The white feminism and how it doesn't benefit women of colour? The raging white women fighting for "women's rights" but only women who look like her?! GOD. JUST AMAZING.

A huge part of me thinks this book was written as a direct response to JK Rowling and her bullshit TERF rhetoric, and my god is it incredible.  The setting, the fantasy elements, and the themes work so beautifully together and paint the biggest "fuck you" to every TERF out there, I couldn't be more thrilled.

A huge part of me expected Helena's story to go a very different direction, and I am SO thrilled that this didn't remotely pander to the "we're better than them, show them kindness" bullshit that some people spew. every TERF deserves to burn in hell, I'm not sorry. RIP Helena, you crusty bitch.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Cursing, Abandonment, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Grief, Hate crime, Sexual content, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol and Self harm

th18's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Heres a few points I noted down whilst reading:

• Fast pace and seemed more YA than anything, too many modern references for me personally but each to their own. 
•  This also felt like the second book of the series at the start there was just so much unexplained things thrown in.
•  Whilst the book did deal with modern topics such as race and trans rights, I wish it also talked a bit about harmful beauty standards due to Elle literally hiding her true self from her husband. 
•  I feel like the amount of swear words was also unnneeded.
•  I love the idea of queer witches and empowered modern women but I feel like the talk about adulthood was very bleak
•  The writing and worldbuilding also felt quite underdeveloped which was disappointing 
•  Finally the use of the d slur was completely unneeded

 Although I've only mentioned the negatives, I did have an okay time reading this and it was quite engaging but it could definitely have been better. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Death, Deadnaming, Gaslighting, Classism, Cursing, Car accident, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Transphobia, Child abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Racism, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Outing, Kidnapping, Self harm, Infidelity, and Abortion

puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Death, Kidnapping, and Transphobia

Moderate: Grief, Sexual content, Sexism, Dysphoria, Cursing, Confinement, Racism, War, Alcohol, Abandonment, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Domestic abuse

amberinpieces's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Cursing, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Outing, Child abuse, Infidelity, Racism, Animal death, Classism, Grief, Car accident, Colonisation, Gaslighting, and Kidnapping

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Child death, Gaslighting, Transphobia, Alcohol, Homophobia, Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, Cursing, War, Misogyny, Racism, Kidnapping, Deadnaming, Grief, Death, Confinement, Suicide, Animal death, Violence, Murder, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Medical content, Fatphobia, Colonisation, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, and Outing

Minor: Gore, Emotional abuse, and Vomit

crookedspines's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, War, Violence, Kidnapping, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Transphobia, Car accident, Murder, Outing, Toxic relationship, and Dysphoria

Minor: Fatphobia, Self harm, Racism, Infidelity, Abandonment, and Child abuse

thereadingoutlaw's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Murder, Transphobia, and Deadnaming

Minor: Death, War, Dysphoria, Toxic friendship, and Child abuse

yeld_o's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Violence, and Transphobia

Moderate: Grief, Infidelity, War, and Dysphoria

Minor: Racism, Homophobia, and Vomit

pepgiraffe's review against another edition

tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I'm not much for reviews so I haven't much practice. Generally I liked the, although I found the switching back and forth between characters a little confusing. A week after I had read it, I couldn't remember which witch was which, which is never a good thing. Mostly, though, my problem is that

Helena's

behavior didn't make a lick of sense. If

Gaia had indeed accepted Theo as a girl, which can be seen empirically with how strong she is, then would Helena have really gone on the rampage she did?

I mean, is she just supposed to be

a stand in for JK Rowling?

Also, to go so far as to

murder Annie? Come on!

Speaking of which, some of what happens early in the book doesn't really hold together. The oracles have this huge vision and you simply don't 

check with the most powerful Oracle in the area because it would upset her? How about if it were true, she would already know about it.

 

Also, I did not like the ending. It seems like a money grab.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Dysphoria