Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

23 reviews

faenth's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm and Blood

readandfindout's review

mysterious slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

Style/writing: 3.5 stars
Themes: 3.5 stars
Characters: 2.5 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Worldbuilding: 3.5 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Death, Blood, Self harm, Animal death, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Suicide and Death of parent

maeverose's review against another edition

dark inspiring mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

This is a bit of an essay…
This review is for my first re read of this book, which I originally gave 4 or 5 stars (can’t remember)

!!!This will have spoilers so skip if you haven’t read the book!!!

TL;DR: It didn’t hold up. I feel very similarly as I did for the starless sea. I love the setting with my whole heart, the writing and the atmosphere. Bailey’s chapters remain my favorite. But I was incredibly disappointed with the romance and the way the plot played out.

              The things I loved:

My favorite thing about this book is the circus itself. I wanna visit it so bad. Just the descriptions of the circus, the different foods, performances and tents. I need it to exist.

I also loved the atmospheric writing, the way she describes scents, sounds, etc makes it so immersive. 

Bailey’s storyline is my favorite. I love his friendship with Poppet and Widget and his journey to joining the circus himself.

           The things I didn’t like:

The main romance was so disappointing. For a book that’s marketed as a fantasy romance, I would’ve expected more of a focus on the romance. It’s not even a focus until the last third. They barely interact until then. For an opponents-to-lovers, I wanted tension between them before getting to the romance. What little tension there was came in too late and felt forced. It doesn’t have to be full-on enemies to lovers but it just doesn’t make sense to me that by the time they do finally get together, they get together with no hesitation, knowing they’re opponents. They shouldn’t have been that trusting of each other. I didn’t buy their love for each other. It was very instalove on Marco’s part, and instalove doesn’t work for me for multiple reasons. One being that it’s hard for me to buy his attraction to her when he doesn’t even know her. He fell for her years before they ever really spoke to each other, let alone got to know each other. I can’t buy that, personally. And from Celia’s perspective, she didn’t pay him any attention hardly until the end. It literally says in the book that to her he blended into the background before she found out he was her opponent. She didn’t care about him. It was also somewhat instalove for her after that point. Given that this book takes place over so many years, that would’ve suited a slow burn romance perfectly. Even though it takes years for them to get together, it’s not slow burn. The point of slow burn (imo) is the mutual tension and build up before they finally confess their feelings and get together. They need to interact.

Marco’s relationship with Isobel. He was kinda terrible to her. He fell for Celia the moment he saw her, but didn’t break up with Isobel until 15 years later… like yes Isobel could’ve taken the hint that he didn’t like her anymore but it was really sh*tty of him to not just tell her that it was over. He knew Isobel still loved him, or he wouldn’t have broken up with her at all. He just let that go on for 15 years…… another thing about their relationship that bothered me, is if you pay attention, towards the end Isobel says she was younger than Bailey when she met Marco. Bailey was 15 when Isobel met him, Marco was 19 when he met Isobel. So Isobel had to have been 14 at the oldest…. That makes me uncomfortable.

The competition. I liked that it wasn’t action heavy, but I felt like there was so little focus on the competition that it just felt a bit low stakes. Not even just that but it hardly felt like there was a competition at all.

          ———————————

I think I’ll still read future books by Erin Morgenstern, because I love her ideas so much, but so far both her books have been disappointing for me. I wish she would work on creating more fleshed out characters and plots, then she could easily be a favorite author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Murder, Animal death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Confinement, Cursing, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Eating disorder

A sort of magical equivalent of terminal illness, stabbing, depression, an unhealthy romantic relationship (side romance), pedophilic relationship (14 & 19 when they get together, side romance)

zoeelora's review

dark inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Confinement, Death of parent, Gore, Infidelity, Murder, Infertility, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, and Suicide

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Self harm

Minor: Sexism, Suicide, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Misogyny, and Suicidal thoughts

samchase112's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

A magical, immersive reading experience — I can 100% understand why everyone was hyping this book up for so long! The main characters, and by extension the romance, were definitely the least interesting and least fleshed out part of the book, but the dazzling world and secondary cast more than made up for the dimmer leads. I truly enjoyed my time with The Night Circus, and am so glad I finally stepped into its gorgeous pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Self harm, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death of parent, Abandonment, Death, Murder, Sexual content, and Grief

Minor: Stalking and Suicide

irinalast's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-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

4.0

I listened to the audiobook; I sometimes found myself lost, but this might have been intentional by the writing. The writing creates a pretty whimsical world, where time and reality is a bit warped. I would say it was a sweet story, with glimpses of darkness and drama.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Animal death, and Self harm

ezrazoe4's review

mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

This book is all about vibes. There isn't much in the way of plot, but the writing is exquisite. The writing style creates a whimsical, enchanting atmosphere, and I enjoyed reading it. Though, I suppose it is, at its core, a love story, and there is much less magic wielding than you would expect. Though I do think that this book is amazing, I wouldn't reread it. Perhaps it is just my own preferences, but if you are looking for characters with complex personalities, this wouldn't be the book for you. I do see why people like it, though. 

I couldn't really what the author was trying to convey through the book, though. Perhaps it is simply pure escapism, or I just can't catch the point.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Self harm, and Child abuse

uranaishi's review

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.75

March 5, 2012
March 26, 2014

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Confinement, Bullying, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Suicide, Death, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Car accident, Dementia, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Self harm

Minor: Sexual content, Animal death, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexism

starlit_pathways's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Death, Death of parent, Blood, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcohol and Animal cruelty