Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

27 reviews

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

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

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

nebulasaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Violence, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Bullying, Grief, Trafficking, Death, Sexism, Blood, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, and Pregnancy

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

sarahaf712's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Slavery, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Sexism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, and Sexual harassment

Content warning: birth; stillbirth

thequiltyreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Slavery, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Minor: Blood

savanapavlak's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Slavery and Trafficking

pvbobrien's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Blood, Sexual assault, and Child death

Moderate: Kidnapping, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Slavery, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: violence, rape mention, descriptions of blood and corpses, still birth

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden is the second book in the Winternight trilogy. I loved Vasya in the first book and I love her just as much in this one! This was also a perfect read for this cold snap we were having. This is a very winter atmospheric read. 

We started off a little slow by beginning with Vasya's older brother Sasha's pov. We pick up with him going to Moscow to tell his cousin the Grand Prince about the raids and kidnapping of girl children in the villages by Tartars. He stops by the Savra to rest when a boy on horseback demanded they open the gate and had three girl with her. 

Surprise! It was Vasya the while time. Then we find out what happened to Vasya. I love how fierce and independent she is and stubborn to boot. We get a bit more slow burn from her and Morozko, although we don't really get a happy ending. I still love the fairytale feel of this series and the Russian folklore. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't say more. I'll just say Solovey is one of my favorite characters. 

This is a very feminist take on a fairytale. Though there is a slow burn happening, it doesn't consume Vasya. She just wants to experience the world and be treated as she was when she was being Vasilii Petrovich instead of Vasalisa Petrovna. She doesn't want to get married. She just wants a horse farm of her own. 

Can't wait to get my hands on the last book and conclude this adventure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Child death

Moderate: Slavery, Blood, and Death

Minor: Rape