Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft

42 reviews

zoeforde2's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Abandonment

Minor: Death of parent

robin_reads's review

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.75

This is a pretty unusual type of YA fantasy, though I'd say it's definitely upper YA if not New Adult. 
An Irish Catholic boy and a Jewish girl--though the names of the religions are different in this book. A lot of their story is about the hatred directed at them for where they come from/the beliefs associated with that. There is magic and alchemy (which felt a lot like Fullmetal Alchemist btw) and a horrible mother.
It was way more emotional and hit much closer to home than I expected. 
All in all, this was very enjoyable! Do check CW/TW 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Classism, Racism, Emotional abuse, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Death, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Sexual content

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Religious bigotry, Gore, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Death, Hate crime, and Panic attacks/disorders

city_girl_writer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

This was a joy to read despite the dark vibes and content. Not an all-time favorite, but I will definitely remember this book as Roy x Riza fanfic. Nonetheless, this book stands on its own. Despite not enjoying romance, I liked seeing the dual POVs so that I can feel them pining for each other. I would like to thank Hannah from A Clockwork Reader for recommending this book in one of her videos.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Abandonment, Xenophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Gore, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Animal death, Grief, Gaslighting, and Sexual content

Minor: Death of parent

chichisode'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

didn't expect it to have those types of scenes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Bullying, Gore, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Religious bigotry, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Classism, Body horror, and Alcohol

neni's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

The thing I liked the most about this book was the writing and the imagery. The autumn woods and mysterious sea side town vibes were great, and the writing was quite beautiful and evocative, especially when the author described environments. The character's were okay, I didn't love them, but I didn't hate them, they were a bit cliché in their tropes, but I enjoyed the development of the main character's response to her family trauma, namely in the way she finally recognized her toxic relationship with her mother. Wes was very sweet as a love interest.
I loved Trouble the hound, especially because my own dear dog is of the same breed so I kept picturing her in the book :) 
The pacing was a bit all over the place. The first third of the book felt slow and like nothing was happening, the middle was satisfying in that we finally had some progress in both the plot and the relationship between the main character's, but then the ending, while entertaining, was a bit rushed and left quite a few issues that had been brought up either unresolved or fixed so quickly it didn't feel believable.
I must say as well: the fact that the whole character's main thing was being a huntress and loving it, didn't sit quite well with me as I don't agree with hunting for sport. The descriptions of fox killing as a sport (both the magical/mythical type and the plain normal animal) bothered me.
Overall, this was an okay read, especially vibesy for autumn and with some good romance and pining in the middle but not particularly strong either in plot or character complexity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Bullying, Gore, Grief, Racism, Death, Abandonment, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Body horror, Child abuse, and Violence

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

3.5

This book reminded me a lot of Full Metal Alchemist, but I didn't like this as much as FMA.

the main FMA similarity outside of alchemy, is the fact that Margaret's mom wanted to bring back Margs dead brother with the philosopher stone like how Ed and Al tried bringing back their mom

. I thought this book was quite slow and I was waiting for the hunt to begin. I expected more action along with the romance that also grew. When the hunt actually started, everything went by too quick with the conflict with Jaime and the take down of the hala. I did enjoy the romance side of it since I did like Wes, Margaret, and Wes' family. And I liked how Margaret grew as a character although I'm not the biggest fan of "a dude's love is the thing that you needed to fix/save you" all the time.
I'm also not a fan of white, raised Christian people writing about marginalized people when they haven't had those experiences. I know the author is LGBT+ and probably has faced prejudice because of it, but the discrimination and oppression one experiences based on religion and race/ethnicity is quite different. I don't like white authors saying that racial and religious minorities need to take the high road to be better than their oppressors like what has been illustrated in this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Violence, Xenophobia, Bullying, Child death, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racism, Alcohol, Animal death, Antisemitism, Classism, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Religious bigotry

boookishbrit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Animal death, and Religious bigotry

glass_carousel's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Antisemitism, Abandonment, and Animal death

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Classism

Minor: Death of parent and Child death

sallenreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

I loved Allison Saft's debut, DOWN COMES THE NIGHT, and was hoping this would be just as good. Fortunately, it was, and I adored absolutely everything about this book.

Saft wove together so many different elements in this book, and they all worked so well together. Like her other book, this one has a romance between two outcasts at the heart of it, with a setting that could be its own character, and high stakes driving the plot forward. But it also grapples with topics like religion, xenophobia, and abuse. None of the aforementioned elements detracted from the others, or felt unnecessary; it all blended together very effectively to tell a complete story.

And speaking of our main characters, they each had their own traumas to work through, and helped each other while maintaining their independence. I also appreciated Wes for his excellent neurodivergent representation -- he read as having ADHD, and maybe dyslexia. As someone with ADHD, I felt it was handled very authentically, and my heart ached for him because I've gone through many of the emotions (failure, inadequacy, etc.) that he did.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, and Antisemitism

Minor: Alcohol, Hate crime, Grief, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Child death, and Cursing