Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The Kingdom of Sweets

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen

7 reviews

lauren_shilling's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.25

I want to start off by saying that this book is beautifully written. The writing is absolutely gorgeous, and very very immersive. However, that was really the only thing I really enjoyed about it. I felt like the plot was kind of all over the place. If the plot had only been the first half of the book, I would have probably given this 3.25 stars, but everything that came after the halfway mark bored me to tears. I also really couldn't stand the main character. She was very thoroughly an "I'm not like other girls' character, and in a way that put down other women, particularly Clara, who enjoyed things like collecting dolls and who cared and enjoyed caring about her appearance. Natasha, the main character, kind of made it seem like these were bad things and her lack of interest in them made her better than Clara, which bothered me. By the end of the book, this is supposed to have been changed and show that Natasha has changed as a person, but it felt almost lazily done, and it wasn't good enough for me. The reason I kept reading was because, as I said, the writing was gorgeous, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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thereadingllama's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

2.5

So so dark. Hard to get through if you are a fan of the magic of the Nutcracker. I also felt like parts were reaching quite far without backing it up with storyline.

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vj_thompson's review against another edition

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The beginning is what got me. It was hard to read and get through. The story in the beginning is straight up depressing. I wanted it to get to the plot a lot quicker.

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kelseyr713's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I had high expectations for this because I love what I’ve read by the author before, but it gets repetitive and many questions aren’t ever answered. Great atmosphere though.

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chasingpages1's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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restlessreason17's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

This was a very...strange book? I'm not so sure how to rate it. I feel a little lied to, also. This wasn't really fantasy? Honestly read a bit more like a paranormal horror.

The Good

The writing style! I enjoyed it. Natasha likes to think all lot and I liked to hear her think.
Expanded a lot on the original story. If I remember correctly, there isn't much of a plot after the defeat of the rat king in the ballet. I loved that this world was so much more fleshed out, and even Dosselmeyer got a backstory (though I still had some questions)
Kept me guessing. Despite how strange this book felt sometimes, I always wanted to know what happened next.
Characters! I enjoyed the characters, which I know is kinda controversial. I think it was the last 3rd that made my opinion solidify, but I appreciated how flawed they were and that the text called them out for it. Like, Natasha gives very strong "not like other girls", but imo the book doesn't praise that.
Rasputin showed up and for some reason that was just very funny to me

The Bad

Conrad. For all the talk about Conrad, I don't think we had many interactions with him. Like, there was a lot of telling about what the marriage was, but he never got to talk more than one or two sentences? In general, though, there was a lot of summarization.
Incest??? There was literally just an incest line thrown out there and never heard expanded on and I just sat there like 🧍‍♀️
Confused. I dunno, basically I just got confused sometimes. As an example, we weren't told that this story takes place in Russia until the epilogue (sure, we had names to go off of, and very random history tidbits, but I thought we were in Germany for the longest time because that's where the OG story took place). Another example: Dosselmeyer was a sorcerer, and a king was mentioned, so I thought for a little that we were in a fantasy kingdom, but we weren't?
Fritz and the Pit. Ok so, Natasha has divination, so she just knows things sometimes (I'm ASSUMING that's how she knows Orlov was the Fairy's son), but then what was the Pit if Fritz could see it?? And why did the Fairy mess with him at all?? Was he being messed with at all?
Sl*tshaming?? There was a lot of mentions of people sleeping around n stuff, and the MC kinda hated her sister for it, while she was regularly meeting Conrad. It was strange.
The Ending? Yeah this also confused me. Also,
is it just me, or did it never really feel like Natasha forgave Clara for the past?

Also there was this habit the author got into where usually each page would only have like 2-4 paragraphs, and I'd have to go back and analyze them to see whether or not it passes, but when you write, you should use Tip Top. Every time there's a new Time, person, Topic, or place, you're supposed to make a new paragraph. Sometimes it felt like we started with one idea and ended with another.

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gondorgirl's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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