Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

10 reviews

raptorq's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, and Misogyny

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Child death

saskiajva's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

It was definitely an interesting book and i am curious about the next one! I do think there are some things the author can hone; i wasn’t a fan of the political or marriage plot lines as it didn’t really capture my interest, and I would love to see some higher stakes. I highly recommend googling the creatures discussed while you read as it adds a lot to the book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Blood, Animal death, Body horror, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Forced institutionalization

kappafrog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Violence, Death, Blood, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Body horror, Domestic abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, War, Forced institutionalization, Ableism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Sexual violence

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, and Animal cruelty

emfass's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

 Comfort reread of one of my favorites series.

Kathleen Gati does a beautiful job as narrator, capturing the characters, the dialects, the world of medieval Rus. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Blood, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Animal death, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cannibalism, Child death, Sexual assault, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Self harm

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, and Rape

sauvageloup's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

a brilliant book that i got through slowly, but through no fault of its own, i think

pros:
- stunning, lyrical, fairytale writing. simple style but really lovely in originality of description and poignant turns of phrase. the story is carried along beautifully, smoothing over time skips.
- the character development was also so good, with Konstantin descending into worse evils, Anna's rise and fall, Vasya growing into her strength while still being fallible, and my favourite, Morozko, of sleep and death. he was cold but fair, human but other, real and not, and i just loved how Arden wrote him.
- i also enjoyed the setting so much, and the historical details too. the afternotes show how much effort Arden put into historical accuracy.

cons:
- maybe a bit slow, which didn't help my lack of reading focus

looking forward to reading book 2, and glad i won't have to leave the characters :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Gore, Death of parent, Death, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Child death, Religious bigotry, and Body horror

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Eating disorder, Blood, Violence, Murder, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual assault

warning for eating disorder is really for starvation and struggling to get enough to eat, descriptions of extreme weight loss.

weminence's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

3.5

I liked this story all the way through for various reasons but my problems with the story are still present and so I couldn't give this a five star rating. I loved the folklore in this book, the world for all its faults felt expansive and magical and the evolution of Vasya's village felt real and heartbreaking. I especially loved the ending when the plot is happening. The scenes in the cottage where my favorites. I do want to read the next book, but I do have issues with the story. 

Please if you are going to read this book check trigger warnings. 

While, I loved the world, I didn't like the accuracy to the period. Not the Christianity coming in and ruining everything for everyone; that felt par for the course, but Pyotr, Dunya, or Anna hitting Vasya I hated. I understand again that that is time accurate but as a fiction writer you get to pick which accuracies to portray. I also understand that Pyotr and Dunya were only trying to protect Vasya and make her act "right" but even if their motives are pure, it ultimately made the story hard to enjoy. Also, treating Vasya like an adult when she is fourteen is gross. Again, accurate for the time, gross for a book released in 2017. Yes, that one dude who briefly appears in the story is treated like a creep but not really because he's twenty-four and she's fourteen. Konstantin should've died at the end too for all his shitty behavior towards Vasya, but that is purely a personal opinion. Morozko, who I think is supposed to be Vasya's main love interest, is the creepiest in this regard but for some reason he is the nicest person to Vasya? Yeah, he gives her frost burn at one point, he still is some how the nicest person to this girl. (Besides her siblings to be fair) The scenes in the cabin were my favorite but they set up a relationship that just gets weirder the more you think of it. I just wish there was more care put into these aspects of the book. Especially considering more than once Morozko refers to Vasya as 'child'.

I am not saying this as someone who hates this book, in fact I bought into the propaganda and Morozko is my favorite but that's not to say that he should be, he's just some how the nicest adult in Vasya's life despite being the one with the most concerning age gape between them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Child abuse

beccam22's review

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective 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? Yes

5.0

This is the best winter read. 
The family is so full of love and a great story for younger girls finding their place in life. It is a story most of us know, either Greek names or European names, Russian or Spanish, there is a version of it in most languages. But the writing is so beautiful and if its not winter where you are you will feel the cold while reading it. 


Below my original review:
It took me two tries to get into this book, yes it is a slow start but I would have been more willing to push through the first time if I knew it was so similar to Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. Any fans of her writing and that story will LOVE this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation

Moderate: Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Pregnancy, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Sexual harassment, Animal death, and Blood

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.0

A girl finds that she can see creatures out of forgotten folklore. This, she keeps secret so that nobody accuses her of acts against their new religion and god. Later, a combination of forgetting the old myths and one man’s need to feel exalted above all others leads to deadly trouble that only she is positioned to deal with . 

I love books like this, that use existing mythology and folklore. This book uses Russian folklore to create a magical setting filled with helpful spirits that tend the home or stable, or steward the forest, all only visible to certain lucky people. There's a lot of religious scapegoatting in this book, and overall the book didn't capture my attention as well as I thought it would, but I enjoyed it well enough. I gave it a 4 star review, but ultimately felt so-so about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Violence

Minor: Forced institutionalization

kestrel's review

adventurous emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Pedophilia, Forced institutionalization, and Child death

Minor: Animal cruelty and Body shaming

ashlightgrayson's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I give my congratulations to Katherine Arden for creating a world that is so vivid, atmospheric, and immersive. Usually I prefer books that are very fast paced. This book has more of a medium pace and there are plot points that are planted at the beginning of the book that are not addressed immediately, but rather later. However, the plot is immersed in mystery and suspense that leaves readers curious as to what direction the tale will take. The story changes focus for extended periods of time leaving you wondering what is going on with another plot point, but eventually you get back to it. This also mildly mirrors a Hades/Persephone retelling, which I always appreciate, especially when done this well. There is a variety of characters that range from very unlikeable to super interesting and likeable. Even the unlikeable characters are interesting, though.

This book can stand alone as all of the plot points are answered by the end, but the ending is open to a sequel. This was the perfect book to pick back up in the winter and I can confidently say that it lives up to the hype.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual assault