Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Flock

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Flock by Kate Stewart

25 reviews

tachyon217's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Oh my goodness. Yall, I had my doubts. But, when they say this one is emotionally devastating, they aren't lying. So fantastic. Dirty, steamy, and wow. You won't regret reading this.

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amanda_reads13's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was an interesting story, but I had no clue what was going on majority of the time. This is a Robinhood retelling. The author seemed to be driving home the fact the the FMC was very young and inexperienced. This was evident with her lack of recognition of the manipulation and gaslighting going on in her relationships with Sean and Dom. These relationships were very toxic and were based on lies/lack of communication. I am hoping book 2 will show some maturity/growth in Cecilia.

The whole idea of the Ravenhood was very confusing for majority of the book and, due to the POV, the readers only knew what Cecilia did, which wasn't much. Nothing was really revealed until the end of the book.

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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. I stumbled across this title because of TikTok, and all I knew about the series was that it was sad, and people were going crazy about reading it. Normally I enjoy the books on Kindle Unlimited, but I am hardly entirely immersed into the world and invested in the characters, until now.
"Flock" follows Cecelia, an 18-year-old who has moved to Triple Falls by request of her father. Cecelia and her father have never been close, nor had any real relationship, but he wants Cecelia to come live and work for him for a year before she can have her inheritance. Cecelia's father is a ruthless business owner who has factories all over the world. He has proven himself successful in business, but he is unliked by everyone who meets him. Cecelia wants nothing to do with the father who abandoned her, but she wants his money to help her mother, so she agrees to put off her college ambitions for one year to come live and work in Triple Falls. On her first day of work, she meets Sean, an intoxicating man who might just make this year worthwhile. But Cecelia soon has to face her father's questionable business tactics and has to decide if love is worth everything.
This is a very drama filled romance. Cecelia is often immature and kind of cringeworthy to read from, but I still was rooting for her and Sean to make it work. I LOVE Sean as a character and love his entire outlook on life. He is exactly the positive person everyone needs in their life. I often felt like Sean could do better than Cecelia because she reads so young and whiney, but she is only 18, and I am hoping that in the rest of the trilogy, with Sean's influence, Cecelia can grow up. I am also hoping to see Cecelia give her father a chance. I understand and sympathize that she is angry and harbors resentment towards her father, but she flat out will not even try to hear him out and accept his apology. I am hoping she does not complete burn their bridge.
I am excited and dying to pick up "Exodus"!

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crinkledmochi's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

3.0

This book is one huge white savior complex….

All the men in this book are just huge red flags walking. The main character is 19 for majority of the book very young compared to the men she’s dating/interacting with. Again she is of ‘legal’ age but it’s still very weird. Plus there’s also a relationship hinted between these two side characters that is also on the creepy side as well because they grew up seeing this person.

I feel like the characters in this book try to be woke so bad and just completely miss the mark, and not only is the main character kinda prejudice it just contradicts the whole story’s forced narrative. The men don’t tell her anything and she follows along like a lost puppy (the irony…). The ending was also lackluster in my opinion and I knew from the beginning what direction this would probably go and the execution was not good.

One thing however that I found like-able was the writing style, it felt real and the emotions the characters expressed you could definitely feel from the pages. I definitely feel like the characters in the book could be real life people, everything felt realistic to an extent like people just suck. I wasn’t too sure going into the book if the writing was going to be any good since a lot of booktok recommendations have some of the most illiterate pieces of work I’ve ever read. I was pleasantly surprised.

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janzenriley's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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kingrosereads's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.25

I wanna start by saying that I told myself that I would not DNR a book this year unless the grammar was ridiculously bad or the book was terribly offensive, which is the only reason I finished this book. BookTok really fumbled with this one and I usually find something about the books on there that I liked.

I think we should start off with Sean is the most pretentious fuckboy on the planet. I get not being involved is social media. But serious? Everything about is just SCREAMS toxic bro culture. He smashes her Apple Watch to make a point about technology but it’s also fucking rude? Like we get it, so go live off grid somewhere. He literally compared to living in America to NAZI GERMANY. The Holocaust dude? SERIOUSLY?! Usually when a love interest is described as having blonde hair, he immediately gets re-written in my mind (idk why blonde men are a red flag to me) but he got back his blonde hair REAL QUICK. Then he like made Cecelia feel stupid and unreasonable when she waited SIX HOURS for him after spending the day cooking for him? Miss me with that gaslighting, abusive shit. You can literally get a burner phone. Like what? There was NO WAY you could’ve gotten a message to her? And because she’s upset that means she doesn’t trust you or believe in you or your mission? I was over Sean after their first date.

Now on to Dominic. Like at least he doesn’t pretend to be all lovey dovey and caring like Sean. He’s an asshole through and through. What you see is what you get with Dominic and not only that, the fact he’s so subtle but people notice how loyal and devoted he is to Cecelia, is what makes him sooooo attractive. He believes the same things as Sean, but he’s not shoving it down your throat every damn minute. Also, him and Sean’s fascination with 1984 by George Orwell is so cringe. Immediate red flag. They humiliate Cecelia in public which is such an immediate turn off for me. Like pushing her to force her to become strong for YOUR needs and desires? No thanks.

Cecelia, the protagonist, is so fucking irritating. The entire book I’m just screaming at her to run. She can’t hold her ground at all and immediately forgives these assholes. And to be honest, that’s a pretty accurate representation of a 19 year old (basically a literal child) being taken advantage of by men who are nearly 30 years old. Many women, especially young/inexperienced women, who are preyed on by abusive, manipulative gaslighting assholes, often go back to these dickwads. Though, I’m not sure why the present day (26 year old) Cecelia is returning to this town because of these two guys when she should be old enough to know better.

Look, I don’t know if Roman is truly a bad guy or he’s got some shady people working with or around him, but it does genuinely seem like he wants to make amends with his daughter in the only way he knows how to, but in typical teenage detachment, Cecelia blows him off. I’d do anything to have a dad that tried even 3% and Cecelia rejects him because what? She’s nurturing her daddy problems between two men? Unacceptable.

Also, the writing is like irritatingly cryptic. I’m not sure if that’s the point considering the two men are always cryptic (which is not only a turn off and annoying, but a HUGE red flag) but it’s just such a turn off as a reader.

I immediately figured they were using her to get to her dad, but Dominic’s dead parents being a result of Roman’s negligence or malice is so cliché.

The cliffhanger in this book is not enough to get me to finish the series. Also, Stewart made too many references to whipping/lashes (not referring to the kink) for my liking. The book had zero plot until the last maybe 5% of the book with no tie-in to the prologue at any point during this book so it is easily forgotten and upon recall, makes zero sense. It gets 1 star for the spice and quarter a star for the very minor intrigue.

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arys_library's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

Yeah I don’t even know what to say. It was amazing, I read it in almost one sitting (but I had to sleep). The first half of the book I was so frustrated. There were so many red flags that were ignored and it seemed like the way the author was writing it made it feel glamorized. But when you get to the ending you realize why everything happened. And it doesn’t excuse these red flags but it makes it make sense. I went into the book blind and only read the blurb on the back which also told you barely anything about the book. But you should go into it blind. It’s a great book and I’m so confused at the end of it and I’m waiting for the second to come in the mail so I can continue. But just know it’s a great book, a romantic erotic suspense and look at trigger warnings. And then dive right in.

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