Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

262 reviews

rjohnston's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Physical abuse

millydrisco's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Blood, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

ttmena's review against another edition

dark tense

5.0

Beautiful and romantic and horrific and dark. I was heartbroken and then sewn back up. I’ll think about this book for a long, long time. 

“I should have said no. I should have stamped my foot, or begun to cry, or icily demanded we leave right away. But I didn’t. I loved you too much, my lord. I craved you like maidens crave the grave, the way death burns for human touch: inconsolably, unrelentingly, aching for the annihilation in your kiss. I had no practice saying no to you.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Toxic relationship

Minor: Physical abuse and Suicidal thoughts

lagaialettrice's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death, Blood, and Emotional abuse

emeliah21's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

This story had me cheering, gripped, thrilled and I truly felt the emotions of the characters. 10/10 would read again, got me out of a massive reading slump 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Death, Mental illness, Confinement, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Moderate: Stalking, Incest, Misogyny, and Kidnapping

Minor: Physical abuse

sarahjx's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• 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: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Murder, Gaslighting, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

A vampire book set in dated times so trigger warnings are very much set with the times.

readhaileyread's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Violence

glinck00's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Physical abuse

emilywemily6's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

There are lots of things about this book that give it merit, but it just didn’t quite do it for me. The writing is beautiful and gripping, and the characters are all very interesting. I think my expectations didn’t align with the book itself as I thought this was more of a retelling than a “reimagining,” so it was hard to appreciate this story when it kept going against the original Dracula novel. The darkness of this book was found more within the toxic relationship with Dracula than with the nature of vampires; I thought this book would show more of the wives’ descent into evil. This take made them seem like immortal humans rather than devilish creatures of the night. I liked seeing the progression of the toxic relationship and how the “wives” came to see Dracula for who he really was. This gothic tale strays from the original novel and tells a very different kind of story. This is a polyamorous relationship also, which took me by surprise. Overall, I’m not sure how much I enjoyed the book as a whole, but I’ll be thinking about it for a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism, and Death of parent

bugsoup's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

this book was so sexy and perfect to feed my gothic desires of fall. i adored gibson’s writing throughout and fell in love with the characters. read this if you want a short but sweet queer vampire story with revenge on abusers!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Dysphoria, and Mental illness

Minor: Self harm