Reviews tagging 'Violence'

A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow

18 reviews

adragoninspace's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Blood, Terminal illness, and Cannibalism

tea_coffee_sam's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Gore, Torture, and Infertility

Minor: Cannibalism and Child death

shaipanda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.5

I really don’t know if I can put my feelings into words for this book. The beginning of it didn’t resonate quite as much as the first one and I wasn’t as invested but the ending absolutely split me open and despite it being fairly open ended I appreciated how it ended Zinnia’s story and felt it was fairly fitting 
Overall I really enjoyed reading this duology and would definitely recommend it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Blood, Violence, Torture, and Confinement

Minor: Infertility, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Child death, and Sexual assault

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Death

Minor: Vomit, Murder, and Domestic abuse

smagzisreading's review

adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness and Violence

deerlybeloved's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring reflective fast-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

4.0

A quick, yet delightfully enjoyable book that develops characters in a way where you're barely even conscious of how little time has past (well, little as compared to a full-length book). A Mirror Mended starts off where A Spindled Splintered left more questions, and shows the main character's evolution with humorous, yet deeply emotional inner-dialogue and character interactions.

Spoilers! Vague, but might give something away about the ending.

While I prefer queer romance where there is a guaranteed happy ending, I didn't find it off-putting when that was not assured here. The constant questioning of life, and knowing that one must die-- something seen heavily in the first book-- was heart-wrenching and beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Child abuse, and Torture

Minor: Rape

While not directly discussed, merely implied with the knowledge that most women will understand, subjects of misogyny and abuse of women, as well as sexual assault, are dealt with.

caidyn's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.25

Another fun book in this series! I enjoyed how this one broke away from the first with the MC having more experience and then getting into a new fairytale. I'd love to see if there's going to be a next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, and Chronic illness

Minor: Infertility

savvyrosereads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.5

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This is the second book in the Fractured Fables series, a set of novellas that retell classic fairy tales.

The first book in this series, A Spindle Splintered, was my last read of 2021, so I knew I wanted to make A Mirror Mended my last read of 2022 (yay, symmetry!) and I’m so glad I did. I absolutely adore fairy tale retellings in general, and the fact that these are so wildly fun, funny, feminist, and original makes me happy. Zinnia is an outstanding lead character, and her journey is inspiring without being saccharine and dark while still remaining hopeful.

In general, if you like quick reads and retellings, you absolutely have to pick these up. And if you’re not already an Alix E. Harrow superfan, allow me to be the one to tell you that you should be (her novels both rank among my all-time favorites!)

Recommended to anyone, but especially if you like: retellings; dark-but-hopeful stories; fast reads

CW: Kidnapping; confinement; torture; discussion of terminal illness

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness and Violence

faduma's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Murder, Torture, Violence, and Physical abuse

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Self harm, Murder, Sexism, and Kidnapping