Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft

119 reviews

modernmatilda's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful lighthearted 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

Reasons to read this book:

Rapunzel and Flynn Rider romance vibes
Cottagecore vibes for days
Soft fantasy
Audiobook Weston Winters has a Newies-boy accent and my entire heart

An absolutely LOVELY read that I wish I could spent eternity in. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Child abuse, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child death, Bullying, Animal death, Hate crime, Violence, Grief, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Blood, Racial slurs, and Alcohol

bujo_bellel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.5

I really love this book, even tho it took me ages to complete (probablly because I was in a reading slump) and also the book was due at the library and I needed to re-borrow it. This book is a slow burn romance. I have never read a slow burn romance before but I can say that I quite enjoyed it. This book focuses more on the fantasy side than the romance side which I think was a good direction for this book to go in. I love the world building, and it has quite fall vibes imo. As you read, the author describes the world in such a way that it was as if I was there myself. I really love how the plot progressed, and I really came to love the characters very much. The character dynamic between Wes and Margaret was done really well and I love how their relationship and characters developed. I liked how the various characters impacted the plot and how the story changed each time something happened. It was a wonderful book to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, and Sexual content

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

I will die on the hill that says a 3-star rating is a good rating. I liked this book! I enjoyed the Jewish folklore element (if you liked The Wolf and the Woodsman, you’ll love this book), I thought the plot was unique and the romance was sweet. 

I didn’t know much about it going in, and it threw me for a bit of a loop when the world was far more “modern” than I was expecting (they drive cars and use phones). I thought it was going to be a full-blown fantasy story with like horses and swords for some reason, so it confused me for a second before I got my bearings. 

I found it especially moving to witness the protagonist, Margaret, journey towards healing the toxic views of love she has based on her relationship with her emotionally abusive mother:

“Love is not the sharp-edged thing [Margaret] always believed it to be. It’s not like the sea, liable to slip through her fingers if she holds on too tight. It’s not a currency, something to be earned or denied or bartered for. Love can be steadfast. It can be certain and safe…”

The only reason it didn’t get a higher rating from me was because the pacing for the middle 1/3 of the book was a bit slow for my taste. It kind of lagged a little bit, but found it’s stride eventually. I definitely enjoyed it, but it didn’t blow me away.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Antisemitism, Bullying, Hate crime, Gore, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: 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

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

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, and Death

Minor: Gaslighting, Child death, and Death of parent

aya_neela's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

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