Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

3 reviews

noxxmog_'s review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional informative 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: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Death of parent

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use

Minor: Fatphobia, Abortion, Murder

kappafrog's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Pros: I loved the worldbuilding. 19th century Malaya was a cool setting, and I appreciated all the little historical details that went with it like the Dutch ghost, all the Malay folklore, and Tien Bai's education abroad. What I liked most about this book was the way Choo built the afterlife world. It was very spooky and atmospheric. All of the rules and restrictions were interesting. The bond between Li Lan and her horse was really nice. My favourite characters in the book were Amah and Old Wong. This was a really cool imagining of what life would be like for someone in her time and place being caught between life and death. 

Cons: The plot was really meandering. There was a lot of time spent with Li Lan wandering around aimlessly, and while it showed off the cool worldbuilding, it left her motivations often muddled. She was a very weepy character which was all right but sometimes got a bit repitive. It was sometimes frustrating as a reader how big the disconnect was between what she was thinking and how she acted - she was often very passive in her conversations compared to what she was thinking. It wasn't unrealistic, but it did make her grate on me a bit. I was also never fully sold on Er Lang as a love interest. He was quite misogynistic and while this is true of most of the male characters in the book, which is appropriate to their place and time, it didn't make him seem that appealing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Minor: Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation

lynssss's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious 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

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Really cool atmospheric escapism. I thought it would get darker really. But it did later in another way. Very interesting plot and characters that all coincide week with each other. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Drug abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abandonment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis

MC's father is pretty addicted for a lot of the novel to opium. He gets better for some of it though. One of the main pairings is a relationship between a early to mid 30s man and a 17 yo.