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Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'
Zodiac Academy: The Awakening as Told by the Boys by Susanne Valenti, Caroline Peckham
14 reviews
biaaaa's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Books about the same story but in different povs are usually a hit or miss for me. This one was definitely a hit.
I know most people read this one in publication order, but i decided to read it after the first book because I read The Awakening a month ago and wanted to refresh my memory before continuing with the series. And I actually really enjoyed reading it now, I don't think that it had any major spoilers and allows me to go into the next book with a new prespective on the boys.
In the first book the only Heir that I genuinely liked was Seth, and now Seth is probably the one I'm most mad at, I really thought that he cared about Darcy in the first book! But I did fell in love with Darius and really like Caleb, I felt so bad in the end for him, like he was the only one that was against that whole plan from the begining, and I loved that he still tried to protect Tory even if it went against his friends, that was the energy I was expecting from Seth, tbh!! Max, I still don't really care about him.
That beeing said, I'm still really angry at all of the Heirs and hoping that the twins make them suffer in the next book. I would also enjoyed if Orion gave Darius a bit of a hard time after everything he did, but considering their bond I don't really think that will happen. But, for me, it'll be easier to forgive them now, once they grovel a little.
I also loved reading about the guys prespective and realizing how different it was from the twins. Like in the first book we see how the twins struggle with their powers and being so behind everyone in the academy, but in this one we saw how strong they actually already are considering they don't know much about their powers and the heirs were always impressed with them even if they didn't show!
Also the difference between Darcy and Tory's povs and Orion and Daius's was everything!!!!! I didn't really care about Tory and Darius in the first book, but now!!!!! He was literally calling her his girl the first time that they met!!!!! And Orion thinking that Darcy was a Siren because there could be no other explanation for how obssessed he was with her!!!!!! Ugh I loved it and I love both of these ships! I'm so exited to see were their story is going!!!
I know most people read this one in publication order, but i decided to read it after the first book because I read The Awakening a month ago and wanted to refresh my memory before continuing with the series. And I actually really enjoyed reading it now, I don't think that it had any major spoilers and allows me to go into the next book with a new prespective on the boys.
In the first book the only Heir that I genuinely liked was Seth, and now Seth is probably the one I'm most mad at, I really thought that he cared about Darcy in the first book! But I did fell in love with Darius and really like Caleb, I felt so bad in the end for him, like he was the only one that was against that whole plan from the begining, and I loved that he still tried to protect Tory even if it went against his friends, that was the energy I was expecting from Seth, tbh!! Max, I still don't really care about him.
That beeing said, I'm still really angry at all of the Heirs and hoping that the twins make them suffer in the next book. I would also enjoyed if Orion gave Darius a bit of a hard time after everything he did, but considering their bond I don't really think that will happen. But, for me, it'll be easier to forgive them now, once they grovel a little.
I also loved reading about the guys prespective and realizing how different it was from the twins. Like in the first book we see how the twins struggle with their powers and being so behind everyone in the academy, but in this one we saw how strong they actually already are considering they don't know much about their powers and the heirs were always impressed with them even if they didn't show!
Also the difference between Darcy and Tory's povs and Orion and Daius's was everything!!!!! I didn't really care about Tory and Darius in the first book, but now!!!!! He was literally calling her his girl the first time that they met!!!!! And Orion thinking that Darcy was a Siren because there could be no other explanation for how obssessed he was with her!!!!!! Ugh I loved it and I love both of these ships! I'm so exited to see were their story is going!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying and Child abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism
yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really enjoyed reading this in tandem with the first book. It helped shed light on their horrible actions. It was sad and conflicting and I just wanted to hug everyone
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Violence, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, Grief, and Cursing
Moderate: Sexual content and Child abuse
Minor: Murder and Car accident
nineinchnails's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
i don't think i've ever read this kind of retelling before (where i've already read 90% of the story) but i was just desperate to hold off on whatever agony and anguish is coming for my favs in book 7. there isn't much to say about the book since it's pretty much a 1:1 retelling of the first book in the series but there were a few scenes that gave a lot more insight into the guys' motivations and how conflicted they were. seth just came off as cruel and petty here so even though i know he improves eventually it was still a little disappointing to see how much he was revelling in the opportunity to humble darcy as payment for something she had nothing to do with (directly). she didn't even know he was mad at her never mind why he was mad. the foreshadowing was strong here so i'm glad i read this when i did or it probably would've spoiled some of it for me. it took me a lot longer to read because i obviously knew almost everything that was going to happen so it wasn't the most interesting read - i can definitely see myself enjoying it a lot more as a tandem read with the awakening on a reread though!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Torture, Bullying, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Blood, Grief, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Death, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Car accident
Attempted murder, Student/teacher relationship, Dubcon (biting), Noncon (biting)selestre's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Torture, and Violence
Minor: Grief, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Vomit
readwith_e's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Violence, Child abuse, Torture, and Emotional abuse
lotte5322's review against another edition
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Blood, Bullying, Murder, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment
Minor: Car accident
hannahwriightt's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Death, and Sexual content
Moderate: Child abuse, Violence, Alcoholism, and Incest
Minor: Death of parent and Car accident
dkgreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
There’s two sides to every story, which is why I freaking love dual POV books. I’m glad I decided to read this before jumping into book two, because having a peek into the boys’ heads during the events of The Awakening was super enlightening. However, now matter how compelling the reasons behind their actions were, I still hope the twins come into their power and completely hand the boys their a$$es.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Physical abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
briochebun's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
4.25 out of 5 ☆’s.
”The darkness is your closest friend, but it’s time to let it go.”
ੈ✩‧₊˚
This retelling of the first novel FAR exceeded my expectations!
(I still cannot believe that I had such a wondrous — and at times painful — time reading about these events that I already knew the outcome of…)
Going into this novel, I was a bit worried that my decision to read “The Awakening: as Told by the Boys” before ”Ruthless Fae” would prove to be an unwise one because I would be interrupting the flow the story (therefore potentially sending me into a slump if I didn’t end up enjoying ”The Awakening: as Told by the Boys”).
Now that I’ve finished the novel it’s clear to me that I did in fact make the correct decision by reading this first! (yayyy 🥳)
ੈ✩‧₊˚
Getting to see everything that the male characters were up to during the events of TA was an eye-opening experience, and I’m sooo glad that I got more insight into their personal lives as well as their thought processes (especially Caleb’s) during all of the chaos…
ੈ✩‧₊˚
I’m just itching to begin “Ruthless Fae“ and continue this story! ♡
P.S. Orion still owns my heart.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Sexual harassment and Death
charhollyx's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A really interesting insight into how the boys perceived the awakening and the events following.
As I read this after book 7, I found it was difficult to reread the boys without their character development, Seth in particular who I grew to love.
I would recommend reading it last, because although the characters are still hard to swallow, there is a little too much obvious foreshadowing which annoyed me a bit.
I would have preferred all of the boys pov’s, as it was mostly Darius and Orion with a splash of Seth and Caleb and only one chapter of Max - I wanted equally distributed chapters for all the heirs and Orion, but it was still a fun read and I have missed Solaria and Zodiac Academy a lot!
As I read this after book 7, I found it was difficult to reread the boys without their character development, Seth in particular who I grew to love.
I would recommend reading it last, because although the characters are still hard to swallow, there is a little too much obvious foreshadowing which annoyed me a bit.
I would have preferred all of the boys pov’s, as it was mostly Darius and Orion with a splash of Seth and Caleb and only one chapter of Max - I wanted equally distributed chapters for all the heirs and Orion, but it was still a fun read and I have missed Solaria and Zodiac Academy a lot!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual content, Alcoholism, and Bullying