Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

47 reviews

itisnatal's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual harassment

ktkeps's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Slavery

mandeeson's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, and Miscarriage

mmefish's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.5

Witch. The word drifted across his mind. We call such women so, because we have no other name.

This one... isn't as great as "The Bear And the Nightingale".

I still love Katherine Arden's writing and the way she shapes her characters but this book feels way less... mature? The beginning is fine and the middle section is great (I was anxious the whole time) but the ending felt rushed, unnecessary and trope-ish.

What I mean by unnecessary is, for example, this:
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did the traitor really need to be Koschei the Deathless? It didn't serve any purpose rather than to connect Vasya to him, which wasn't needed. His character was good enough as a human and his evilness became a little caricaturish as well.

-

what was the point of  incorporating Olga's pregnancy and killing her unborn baby? Just...why? I think Vasya had enough of courage and determination without it.

-

romance with Morozko. Not necessary and could easily be written as strong friendship/platonic relationship. She's about 16 years old and is often referred to as "child", so it's kinda icky.

And by tropes I mean: Vasya is special, "plain" (so many time it's mentioned that she's ugly and not a beauty, we get it), everyone falls in love with her; Vasya is good/better at whatever; lack of communication, specifically people starting telling something and just... deciding not to (I hate it so much); the "twist" (

"the villain was one of us all along"

), the easy escape at the very end,

teenage girl in love with ancient being

etc. 
It read a little bit too much like YA.

Also, I'm really sick of

Vasya getting sexually harassed/assaulted.

I understand why Katherine Arden writes it but I dislike it nonetheless. 

Overall, "The Girl in the Tower" is definitely not terrible but still feels like a letdown after such a strong first book.
_______________

Edit: decided not to finish the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Blood, and Sexism

Moderate: Gore, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, Slavery, and Rape

rotuna's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Miscarriage

Moderate: Sexual assault

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

emfass's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Miscarriage, and Child death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Vomit

saoreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

The deception and lies surrounding the novel's continued progression are indeed intriguing. The characters who play important roles in the story are introduced one by one in chronological order so that readers can focus on them. Not to be spiteful, but the way women are treated, with or without special circumstances, or simply as someone who is seen as insane, is baffling beyond measure to me. It's as if no personality can be bestowed upon a woman due to stereotypical beliefs and birthing machines alike, and addressing those issues was both frustrating and raging for some hopeful specks. That is how good this book is at evoking such emotions. I'm off to read the third one now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Pregnancy, Blood, Miscarriage, Stalking, Confinement, War, and Gore

susannah_knox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Blood, Death, Child death, War, and Misogyny

livinginbetweenthepages'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, Child death, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Sexual assault, Death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Slavery