Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

78 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Torture, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Sexism, Physical abuse, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Abandonment, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Body horror, Animal death, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Police brutality, and Child abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Child death, and Classism

Minor: Infidelity and Bullying

t1k1_bab3r's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? No

2.5

This book is really good, but I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s not a good book. It’s not a bad book. It’s a book. If someone told my they didn’t like this book I wouldn’t understand why but equally to say it’s good is laying it on a bit thick. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Pedophilia

Minor: Vomit

laineydunne's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Moderate: Murder, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Violence, Blood, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, War, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Torture

roorooreads's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

This just did not work for me unfortunately. The writing seemed to be written very young, especially with the themes found in this upper YA book. I loved the premise and hearing a different side of the story. But the romance was insta love and in my opinion, insta love that was not done well. The interactions of our main character Sophia and her love interest felt very awkward and forced. I will say there was one thing I didn't seem coming but the rest was fairly predictable. I really really wanted to love this book but unfortunately it just wasn't for me. I do think though that this would appeal to a younger teen audience who are ready for some slightly more mature themes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Trafficking, and Sexism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Blood, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Murder, and Kidnapping

pkc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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? No

5.0

I bought this on a bit of a whim in 2021 thinking “why not indulge in another subversion of the Cinderella fairytale?” but I guess…like there’s no other subversion worth consuming. This is it. 

Holy crap I LOVED this story.

The protagonist was so engaging, so strong but proudly showed her vulnerabilities. The villain made my skin crawl. The love interests were fully formed characters in their own right who didn’t just serve to enhance the protagonists story. Representation was incredible (a POC MC, very queer).

Around the tail end of last year, I saw someone do a list of reading icks that they’d hope might be left in 2022. One of them was adults reading young adult books, as if it was somehow a lower class of read that shouldn’t be indulged. It really rankled me when I saw it as a 33 year old lover of YA and books like this beautifully explain why. 

This a story, aimed at young adults, that is absolutely about using your voice to speak out against oppression. It’s not the manic pixie dreamgirl or feelingsy guy that you find in the stereotypes that the genre is wrongly thought to comprise of exclusively. 

Sophia is a strong, ferocious human being who is guided by and intently focused on the right thing to do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Animal death, Biphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Torture, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Hate crime, and Sexism

wynnie's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Death, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Violence, Pedophilia, Lesbophobia, Confinement, Classism, Body horror, Blood, Terminal illness, Murder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Chronic illness, Trafficking, Animal death, Confinement, and Suicide

Far darker than you would initially think, quite a lot of mentions of triggering topics. Sexual violence against women is talked about frequently.

thatenbyisisreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? No

4.0

I loved the message of resistance against the patriarchal/misogynistic way of living that the men created in this society. Seeing Sophia's growth in that resistance was nice to see and I love that she found love through that journey. <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Racism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Misogyny

bookswithlauren's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad 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

4.5

I enjoy books that take our classic fairytales and twist them, look at them from a different perspective and weave an entirely different story. I particularly enjoy how Kalynn Bayron explores how much of a negative impact fairytales can have on a society, something I have often thought about. 

We are fed these stories about lives, people, how they do and should live, from a very young age. When, in reality, they are idealistic, narrow minded and unrealistic. Not every girl is going to grow up to find and marry the man of her dreams, have children and live a perfect life she loves as a home maker. But these stories don't show us any diversity or inclusion of any kind. Children learn from fairytales and I don't think our typical fairytales are teaching anything useful and I love the way Kalynn explores this in Cinderella is Dead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Murder, Classism, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Blood, Bullying, Death, Grief, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Trafficking, and War

a_sleepy_berry's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Classism, Murder, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Rape, Sexism, Torture, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Violence, Homophobia, and Outing

deadgirlwalking23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Body horror, Confinement, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Gore, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, and Physical abuse