Reviews with content warning for Violence - Violet Made of Thorns

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen

36 reviews

thebooklovingpanda's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

As the saying goes: every future is earned and no destiny is without blood.

[All quotes are from the ARC, subject to change in the final version]

I enjoyed this one so much, it was utterly bingeable, unexpectedly funny, and I had plenty of fun discussions with my buddy read partner. Most importantly, I didn't ever have that (unfortunately increasingly common) feeling of slight disappointment that tends to accompany reading new releases these days. (The hype power of social media is a beast a half!)

My reading experience here definitely benefitted from having my expectations tempered. 'Violet Made of Thorns' was all over my social media before its release and sounded AMAZING, but a few lukewarm reviews made me go into this with less emotional pre-investment. As you can tell from the last paragraph, this resulted in a Great Time™.

Kings and curses, girls and gods - these are makings of tales. All I did was bleed and ask.

'Violet Made of Thorns' is very atmospheric, heightened by some lovely prose (many a highlight!), and perfect to read in autumn/spooky season. With strange visions, unsettling prophecies and witchiness afoot, the nods to fairy tale elements only elevated the darkly magical and dangerously beautiful (or beautifully dangerous?) vibes. Atmosphere: check...however the setting could have been boosted by the map depicting Auveny' neighbouring countries, rather than just the capital city.

I've always hated how people speak of destiny as if they had no part in it. How they stow their guilt in the stars instead of their hearts, blaming the Fates for their decisions.

The titular Violet is very engaging (as a main character ought to be!), Cyrus was...fine (lol), and some of the side characters stood out as well. Dante (Cyrus and Violet's mutual friend) and Camilla (Cyrus' sister) were particularly striking - Camilla needs more development yet still won me over almost immediately. There is also another who would be a spoiler to name... (Annoyingly, at the time of writing this review, I've actually forgotten who this is, because past me apparently thought that the spoiler warning applied to me too and didn't bother writing down this mystery character's name in my notes...) I hope to see them in Book 2!!

We know right off the bat that this is going to have an enemies-to-lovers plotline, yet I was both surprised and not by the trajectory of the romance. I had a theory that I was really hoping for...but the series isn't over yet! (I am furious at my past self for not writing down this theory in my notes, because by now I've forgotten.) I will say that I did get confused by how Cyrus and another character seemed to be falling and then that thread was just suddenly dropped. (Teenage hormones?)

"Sometimes you hate someone so much, you fall in love."
And maybe if I start a hot enough fire, it'll start shitting ice cubes. "You've had too much to drink, Lady Ziza."

The plot was full of surprises and I loved that while my veteran YA Fantasy experience could predict general points, they didn't unfold the way I expected. I was also impressed with how seamlessly the messages about imperialism and propaganda (that are unfortunately still all too relevant today) were woven into this fantasy world. That said, the story did annoyingly leave some apparently key things unexplained, like the significance of fairies and fayflowers. There also seemed to be this throwaway but essential thing about fairies and hope? I'm hoping these get expanded on in Book 2.

My immediate thought after closing the book was that I NEED Book 2. NOW. What an absolute rollercoaster of a finale...so much was happening that I kept turning the page thinking, 'Surely now it'll be the end/epilogue?'. I loved the fairytale-esque closer - very in keeping with the 'spin' propaganda theme - and I'm really looking forward to the sequel!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an eARC for an honest review.

--------------------------

Initial thoughts:
I can't wait for Book 2. Wow. So much was happening at the end that I kept turning the page thinking, 'Surely now it'll be the end/Epilogue'... I'm glad my expectations were tempered before I went into this, because I ended up enjoying it a lot without feeling let down by inflated hype. Full RTC!

Buddy read with Vivian!

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shannonvonpesach's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional lighthearted mysterious 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

4.0

A fun read, enjoyed it but would've loved more depth about Dante's position and the witch. And maybe the love between the prince and Violet a bit more like love instead of passion.
Still would recommend this book/story!

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takarakei's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

This started out really great, was definitely intrigued from the start. We follow Violet the Seer to the Kingdom of Auveny, whom often bends the truth when looking into people's futures. She divines a prophecy about the Prince that foretells disaster: either she must die or the Prince must. There was some good twists of fairytales loosely threaded into here (bits of Cinderella and Beauty& the Beast). I enjoyed Violet as a main character, she's very sassy, not at all concerned with court politics and realistic about life. She is at odds with the Prince and finds him to be rather silly, and they do have some good antagonistic banter. However, things dragged a bit midway and did not quite keep my attention. I think this was due to the other characters besides Violet being a bit plain. I have a feeling things could've been edited down into one slightly longer standalone, rather than a forthcoming duology.

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sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious 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

4.25

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laurenevlyn's review

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dark mysterious 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

4.0

Content Warnings

mel_j's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

0.75

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chocolatethief's review against another edition

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tense slow-paced

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

0.5

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bzliz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

3.75

Violet is a Seer who maybe tells a few lies here and there at the behest of her king. She grew up at the palace alongside the twin Prince Cyrus and Princess Camilla after she saved the prince’s life as a result of one of her visions. The two grew quite antagonistic of each other, always fighting and never backing down, so if you like some enemies to lovers (but also still kind of enemies) vibes you’ll probably enjoy this. Things take a turn as a prophecy seems to be coming true about the Prince and Violet is tasked with convincing the aristocracy that everything is fine and going according to plan, even though her dreams are being invaded by an evil witch planting ideas of killing the prince in her mind.

The author avoids some pitfalls of having a character able to see the future not seeing certain events by disallowing Violet from seeing her own future and most of her sight into others requires hand to hand contact. I also appreciate that the protagonists are not necessarily good people constantly having twists and turns and obstacles thrown in their path- these people kind of suck. They scheme and lie and are selfish to their cores. It really seems like a world where no one can trust anyone but they’re going to have to learn how.

Things are not at all resolved by the end so I assume there will be a sequel and I will be keeping an eye out for it.

Although I’ve tagged a warning for sexual content, most of that is intense making out and anything beyond that is pretty brief and very much not explicit.

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ella_swis's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

This is a book for those who want to read about women's wrongs, the plot is cheesy and some weird character choices

but its fun that the main character is the morally gray character.

Also be aware this is a duology not a standalone

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mareshempire's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

This was okay, I feel like it needed more fleshing out and more editing. I think the romance was too quick and also their moments were fleeting. The ending was a bit random? The world building was lacking and the magic system needed more fleshing out too. The MC was all talk, no action. I wish she was more active in her story. It felt like she was just waiting for things to happen to her but then had snarky things to say back when she didn’t even do anything to fight against what was happening. Anyways, I still think it was fun and had just enough to keep me reading. Not sure if I’ll read the next book, though.

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