Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Золотые анклавы by Naomi Novik

22 reviews

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

It's been a while since I read book 2 in the series and I contemplated re-reading before picking this volume up because when I initially tried to read it I was overwhelmed.  Book 2 leaves on a cliffhanger and book 3 starts right after and so you see the immediate events and it was a little difficult to jump right it.

I thought that the series was quite solid.  Book 3 really tied it all together and bits that were resolved were introduced in book 1 so it was quite good closure to see actions that have consequences and a resolution all together.

Some of the reveals were also top notch, since there's (in hindsight) a lot of foreshadowing but to be able to put it all together wasn't something I managed.  I don't know if it was because of the gap between the books and it would have been obvious if I read them in closer succession but I was satisfied with how it came together.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

yourpal's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

A great finale to the series! I honestly think it would’ve been more beneficial had the book been longer as it kind of felt like the author was bored by the end and rushed through the big parts but good none the less! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and War

brianneh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

the_crooked_neighbor's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-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

A great finale to a great series. I loved the book. It was a satisfying conclusion that matched the tone of the series. I could write a million words on how amazing this was without fully getting it across. Suffice it to say this is a series I will happily revisit and find new things each time. Mind the trigger warnings but I highly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

tania_mybookishsecret's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual content, and War

Minor: Death of parent

keen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

oliverreeds's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

absolutely crushed

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-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? Yes

3.0

Not sure how I feel about the ending and the pacing. It seemed like this could have been two books, and a lot of side characters fell by the wayside (Chloe, Magnus, Liu, etc). For a final book with a lot of ground to cover, I felt too much time was spent building a relationship between Liesel and El. Not the relationship itself, but that time could've been used to a better purpose. REALLY not happy with how things ended for Orion. His entire arc was learning how to be a 'person' and not 'a hero who kills monsters' but then ended up choosing to spend his life away from loved ones and killing monsters full time. Disappointing tbh.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ashlikes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Grief, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Confinement, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

greymalkin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

An incredibly satisfying and pleasing conclusion to the trilogy.   I loved it and immediately started re-reading the series again for reasons mentioned under the spoiler tag.

It is very rare for an author to be able to drop a twist so late in a series and pull it off.  Either the twist is predicated on information that the reader never knew or couldn't possibly know (e.g. That there were two murderers, that one particular song has huge personal meaning for the main character even though it was never mentioned, etc.).  But Naomi Novik did a marvelously satisfying job at it.  As soon as it came up I was like OMG now so many things make sense!!  There were always little moments that felt interesting but not particularly significant, and to have them suddenly all be huge clues as to what was really going on was very very cool.  The twist didn't feel like it came out of nowhere and it didn't make me feel stupid for not noticing all the hints.  I love when I can be delightfully surprised (and horrified because of the actual content of the twist). 

I also really loved that this book focused on El really deepening her friendships and feelings for other people and showing how she could bring together disparate groups even though she's not particularly charismatic or great at social things.  I had liked Liesel from the second book but I really loved her in this one.  And Orion... my heart bled for Orion.   

It took me a while to finish the book because I was deliberately pacing it out, savoring the moments because so many huge things happened all the time it was better to take in the book in sips rather than gulps.  And once I finished it, I immediately started reading the first book again.   Only a few chapters into the first book and I was very pleased to see that yes indeed, there's a huge clue right there right at the start and yet we had no idea what we were looking at so it meant nothing.  Tremendous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Racism

Minor: Child death