Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

7 reviews

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-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? Yes

3.5

3.5 stars rounded up! 

I liked this sequel, and I liked that we saw some failure from Vasya. She seemed to miraculously know most things last book, so seeing her have to put pieces together and realize that everything won’t be handed to her added more depth to her than she had before. She makes hasty choices and they have consequences, and seeing her deal with that made her feel much more real.

I was not into how much this book leaned on assault and objectification to strike fear into Vasya; bodily harm (because yknow, war & magic battles) without rape threat and violent misogyny would’ve been sufficient. Staying historically accurate doesn’t require focusing in on details like that. The Game of Thrones school of dealing with misogyny in history should be burned to the ground, but I digress 

I was afraid this book would bore me because it verged on political intrigue, but honestly those parts were easy to gloss over to get to the magic bits. I love the balance the author found there. I don’t care about palace life beyond how it directly impacts our characters, and I don’t enjoy reading about political machinations. This book gave me just enough context to continue making its point about gender & power dynamics in this time period

Overall fun, but I’ll be honest in saying that I hope the next book is far from a palace. I also find myself ready for a conclusion, so I’m glad this is a trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexism, Misogyny, and War

Moderate: Sexual violence, Vomit, Violence, Child death, Child abuse, and Pregnancy

toriffic's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Sexism, and Death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, War, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Self harm

saintyeehaw's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

This was kind of a slog to get through from the beginning to middle, but once it started picking up toward the end I was hooked into the series once again so I will continue to the final book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Outing, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Murder, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, and Religious bigotry

maeverose's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-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? Yes

5.0

This one is equally as good as the first book to me, maybe even better. I liked it for all the same reasons I liked the first book; atmosphere, setting, writing, realistic characters, the interweaving of the folklore into the story, plus it has one of my favorite tropes (female character has to disguise herself as a man), and Vasya actually leaves her home to explore different towns/cities, including Moscow, and gets to be a badass (albeit pretty naive at times, but what do you expect from someone who's never left her very small town in the middle of nowhere until now?). I really grew to like Sasha in this book, despite him being a bit of an idiot sometimes

(like why are you focused on your sister 'sinning' by dressing as a man when she just saved several kids LIVES?)

The main antagonist was very predictable, not sure if he was supposed to be or not... but I didn't feel it took away from my enjoyment of the story at all.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Violence

Minor: War

stillbirth

grimviolins's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pregnancy, Violence, Misogyny, Child death, Miscarriage, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: War, Vomit, Pedophilia, and Animal cruelty

mscalls's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring tense 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Violence

aseaoftomes's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

This is the second installment in the Winternight trilogy, and my feelings change a bit on this reread.  While I still really enjoyed it, I didn't like it as much as the first one (but not by much). 

This book picks up mostly where the first book left off, at least with Vasya's storyline, but we also follow some of Vasya's family members; her brother Sasha and her sister Olga and meet some new characters in the process. This book focuses more on the humanity and Christianity aspect than the spirits of the old religion and takes place in cities and towns more than the country. We're primarily in Moscow in this book It's looking at the opposite end of the spectrum from the first book. 

As with the first book, the setting and atmosphere of the world is excellently and expertly written. It really transports you there and you live it. It was no different here, but I missed the extra atmosphere of being in the wilderness vs. the city. And the historical aspects were also really interesting and well done. Once again, Katherine Arden does her research and while we don't have a ton of documentation on the time period, I loved what she did with it and how she wove in the tales. 

The writing was also still fine. A little less engaging at times, but not overly so. I was just more interested in certain characters and their storylines than others at different times. 

The plot was also fine. It's pretty much Vasya deciding she wants to travel and learning about the world and how different it is compared to how she grew up. And also her reuniting with family members we only got glimpses of in the first book like Sasha and Olga. There was also an added part of the plot where Vasya is posing as a boy for a large part of the book and how that all plays in to everything. 

Finally, the characters. My feelings on Vasya were pretty much the same as my thoughts on the first book. Her arc and actions are driven by those around her, so she feels flat at times, but I still really enjoy her anyway. I loved getting to see Sasha more in this book and Olga was also interesting at times. I loved two of the new characters we also got to meet - Kasyan and Marya. Marya is probably my favorite of the new characters. But honestly, the characters that shine the most for me are the spirits - Morozko remains my favorite (and probably always will - I have such a soft spot for death gods in books). The relationship between Vasya and Morozko is also great (idiots to lovers anyone?)

All in all, a great second installment and one I'll definitely reread again (also in a snowy setting - that's how you read these books. Wait for a snow storm!).  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Grief, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Violence, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, and Physical abuse