Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

48 reviews

judassilver's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, War, Child abuse, Self harm, Death, Blood, and Confinement

Moderate: Child death, Torture, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

Minor: Suicide and Pandemic/Epidemic

corallydeer's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful lighthearted mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

This was a great read! I had heard that Rogerson was a phenomenal writer and I heavily agree after this first foray into her works. I loved her writing style and thought it was a great blend of fairly direct writing with prose-y styles. I loved the characters and the world so much; the banter between the revenant and Artemisia was always a great time and the world they existed in felt so unique and fresh. The beginning felt a bit slow to me, so I was sitting more at a four-star rating for a while, but the second half of the book really picked up and suddenly I felt like I couldn't put it down and now I even want to reread it! The second half quickly shot the book up to a full five-star rating for me and I can't wait to read more of Rogerson's works now!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Child death, and Self harm

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, and Suicide

Death

(the book is about spirits and ghosts so death is a huge part of the overall world and plot)

| Blood

(blood is brought up on multiple occasions and used for things)

| Fire/Fire Injury

(Artemisia has extensive burn scars on her hands that come up frequently through the story)

| Child Death

(some of the spirits depicted in the book are dead children)

| Violence

(there are a number of battles throughout the book)

| Confinement

(Artemisia is confined on multiple occasions when arrested)

| Animal Death

(some animals die here and there as minor details)

| Self Harm

(Artemisia has to cut herself to acquire blood for runes and is depicted throughout the novel not being afraid to singe/burn herself for a purpose)

| Suicide

(Leander's brother committed suicide which is explained in passing)

crystalisreading's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Blood, Violence, War, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Grief, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Minor: Bullying, Animal cruelty, and Suicide

cedartonk's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Eating disorder, Death, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and War

novel_nibbles's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Despite loving Margaret Rogerson’s other works, I held of from reading Vespertine for so long, because I wasn’t sure about the premise of a shared consciousness. However having recently enjoyed The Shepard King duology and its version of the same premise, I was inspired to give it a go, and I’m so glad I did! 

I throughly enjoyed the magic system, the found family aspected and the snarky banter between Artemisia and Revenant.

I love how the book finished without a cliffhanger but with the hope of future adventures. Which Saint do we need to pray to make it happen?!  

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5 ⭐ CW: Violence, blood, self-harm, death, suicide mention, immolation 

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson is a YA standalone fantasy. This is the second book I've read by this author, and it didn't disappoint! I wasn't sure what to think at first, but I quickly fell in love. Our MC has PTSD and has disabled hands. I also suspect that she is also neurodivergent and possibly aroace, but these are really just headcanons. 

We follow Artemisia, a novice nun with scars on her hands and the official Creepy Weird Girl of her cohort. When Confessor Leander comes to tests the novices for their placements, the convent is besieged by thralls (people being possessed by spirits), and Artemisia is given a powerful tool called a Saint's Relic containing a Revenant. Spirits are dangerous, and it takes training to be able to control them instead of the other way around, but Artemisia finds that her revenant isn't so bad. 

I loved the relationship between Artemisia and the Revenant. Because of her PTSD, Artemisia is disconnected to her body, so it takes having the revenant inside her I'm order for her to do self-care such as feeding herself, sleeping, and drinking water. The revenant reminds her that her body also carries her and she should take care of it. The Revenant had great growth. It was sarcastic, cranky, and sassy, but a good compliment to Artemisia. I found the foil of the character Leander to be fascinating as well. He seemed to be a mirror, if flawed, to Artemisia. The twist came out of nowhere! I never expect it, and it was wonderful (well, not for the characters 😆) 

I loved seeing a world with so many powerful women, especially in a religious sense. Even their god is a Lady. Many powerful nuns. Don't mess with nuns.  We get a lot of themes about consent, especially in regard to binding spirits and using them. It was a great magic system, and I wish I could stay in the world a little bit longer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Self harm, Death, and Blood

Minor: Suicide

vagorsol's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Self harm

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, and Violence

Minor: Suicide

sonygaystation's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The character growth in this book was so *chef’s kiss*!!! Also the revenant has my whole heart

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Abandonment, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Blood and Death

Minor: Child death, Grief, Gore, Suicide, and Body horror

charloforce's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Abandonment, Death, Violence, Bullying, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Murder and Torture

Minor: War

asiamd's review

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

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

5.0

This book was sooooo good. I loved the main character and her revenant!! The way the author added depth and feelings to every character that came on the page was amazing. I really adore books that allow for villians to also be victims of pain and fear and I felt like this book did a great job of incorporating that wit a kind of anti-hero in the revenant as well as all the other spirits throughout the book. I really liked the different take on religion as well, while it was really similar to Christianity(?) with the blind belief of the people, the praying, and the saints, Rogerson also made it unique in the book by adding a more ghostlike twists that in my opinion added way more humanity to what the spirits were. Overall I really enjoyed this book and read it in one day 🤭 so 10/10

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Abandonment, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Violence

Minor: War, Suicide, and Vomit