Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

28 reviews

vickybuka's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Colonisation, Alcoholism, and Abandonment

enbae's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was the best book I read in a long time! It got me hooked like crazy and I told all my friends to read it. If you enjoyed the "darker shades of magic" trilogy or even the Pirates of the Carribbean movies, this book is a must-read!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Addiction, Blood, Trafficking, Sexism, Murder, Death, Classism, Violence, Alcohol, Vomit, and Torture

Moderate: Violence, Child death, Colonisation, Vomit, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Abandonment, Lesbophobia, Torture, and Trafficking

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Racism, War, and Slavery

decembera's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

It is... certainly a choice to make your Black lead an enslaver.

Mind the content warnings. This was significantly more graphic than I expected from a YA book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Blood, Child abuse, Trafficking, Physical abuse, Torture, Classism, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Drug abuse, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Excrement, Rape, Outing, Abandonment, Drug use, Dysphoria, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

crykea's review against another edition

adventurous sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

i enjoyed the book and loved the characters but I was a bit put off by the way what alfie went through and how he coped was tossed aside for the furthering of the other characters' plot? he had, arguably, some of the worst most tragic demeaning things happen and the whole time he was called names and unmotivated just because he was obviously affected by them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Body horror, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Rape, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Kidnapping, Bullying, and Death

quiet_reader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Colonisation, Addiction, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Dysphoria, War, Violence, Torture, Abandonment, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Child death, and Sexual violence

alli_andrews's review against another edition

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

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Gore, Grief, War, Trafficking, Gun violence, Rape, Slavery, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

xoemax's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I have seen a lot of mixed reviews for this book, but regardless I was still eager to read it as a lover of anything queer, fantasy and historical fiction. And I can say for me, this book was just what I needed. 

This book covers some amazing social topics, and in my opinion has some great LGBTQIA+ representation, intersectionality, and an exploration of gender diversity/fluidity. I appreciated the nuances and consideration with how Florian/Flora was written, with varying pronouns depending on context/viewpoint. I think it's important not to get caught up expecting characters to always have everything figured out from the start, especially when they themselves are coming to terms with and discovering their own identity. So for me this felt like a very wholesome, honest and positive exploration of how it feels to explore gender and sexuality as a young person.

The book is relatively fast paced, I will say. And from that I can see where the criticism of the story and characters feeling unresolved by the end comes from. I like to think I have an active imagination, so this I'm lucky wasn't too much of a deterrent for me. Part 2 of the book in particular with

Xenobia

felt underdeveloped, and I wished there was a more complex dive into the society of The Floating Islands, and the themes of practical witchcraft, memories, and storytelling tradition. As mentioned in the acknowledgments, the book was originally scripted during NaNoWriMo, which I feel might be where it inadvertently limited itself. The characters and storyline I feel could've benefited from more in-depth explorations to make the book feel more developed and less jumpy. 

Overall: an enjoyable and fun read, with the beginnings of some great world building, emotional, and featured themes I'd definitely like to read more of.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Violence, Torture, Colonisation, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Trafficking, Blood, Death, Alcoholism, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Addiction, Rape, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Confinement, Slavery, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Child death, Mass/school shootings, Gore, and Homophobia

warlocksarecool21's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.25

I really wanted to like this book but it fell a little flat for me. That isn’t to say there weren’t parts that I liked, but it wasn’t enough for me to ignore everything else. I thought the premise was interesting and I was kind of invested in some of the characters but everything else seemed kind of disjointed. It took a really long time for the endgame of the story to become clear (and even then it seemed kind of anticlimactic). I felt that while individual plotlines were interesting on their own they were sometimes incongruous with the rest of the story. The beginning and the end were solid but I was kind of lost in the middle. 

I really liked Rake’s chapters and I thought his voice was strongest throughout the book. His character had a clear motivation and goal and it was something that I could hold on to. While I did like Flora and Evelyn, I’m hardly ever interested in quick/instant romances so I didn’t really care about that part 😂. I was more invested in Flora’s arc than Evelyn’s, although I was a little lost in the Witch section. I wish there was more explanation on why Flora was a witch and the purpose of it other than a plot device lmao. I wanted to like Evelyn but she just seemed so superficial, an imitation of other YA heroines but nothing really unique about her. I think some of the problems I had with the character voices can be attributed to the writing style. In the beginning it reminded me of reading a fairytale or old legend, and I think that style is good for setting and atmosphere but it has to be done a certain way for the characters to still pop and it didn’t really do it for me. It certainly didn’t help that povs kept getting added. The sea interludes were interesting and I liked Rake but Genevieve’s pov felt unnecessary 😂. And I think it took away from Flora and Evelyn’s development. 

The worldbuilding also suffered for it too. We got just enough details to have a setting and a vague plot and that was it. I found myself with so many questions about the history of the Empire and all the different cultures in it. I’m totally down for commentary on colonialism and imperialism but again it was really surface level. The countries that were named were vaguely inspired by real places but the dynamics of everything was confusing to me. 
and I also want to know what the fuck was up with the witches. like you can’t just say there’s witches and not explain them or where the magic comes from. I didn’t mind the magic of the sea being kind of mysterious because no one truly understands it anyways but I wish there was some foundational explanation of the world history and magic system bc the information we got was kind of vague. 

I know it sounds like I hated this but there were some fun elements to this story but I was ultimately a little disappointed. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Drug abuse, Murder, Animal cruelty, Trafficking, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Grief and Abandonment

kananineko's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

There were a lot of things I liked about this book, including the short chapters, focus on pirates and mermaids, the sea as a character, and the way the worldbuilding was developed. Overall, I enjoyed reading it. But ultimately, I don’t think it was super memorable, and I didn’t really care about the characters, unfortunately. For some reason the only character I really cared about was Rake. Honestly, couldn’t really tell you why. The romance was cute, yet a bit rushed. Everything in general felt a bit simplified and not super memorable to me. 

I still think a lot of people will love this book, though. If the description sounds interesting to you, go for it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Gore, Violence, Murder, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Torture, Gun violence, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Homophobia, Classism, Trafficking, Mass/school shootings, Slavery, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Outing, Sexual assault, Child death, and Rape

audreyreadz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring 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: Genocide, Death, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Torture, Vomit, Addiction, Alcohol, Colonisation, Grief, and Trafficking

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault