Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb

34 reviews

clubbo'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

There are a lot of elements I like in Ship of Destiny.  Robin Hobb is a fantastic writer; her prose is a pleasure to read, and her character work is second to none, but I definitely preferred the Farseer Trilogy to Liveship Traders. 
I keep going back and forth on my ratings for all three books in this trilogy, because I liked them, but there were also aspects that stopped me from loving any of them. 

I never liked Wintrow, and felt far less invested in his perspective than other characters'.  This was mostly something I could grin and bear until we got his perspective after Althea accused Kennit of rape.  While I understand that the disbelief was realistic and a symptom of Kennit's wider manipulation and control over everyone, that didn't make the way Wintrow (and the rest) acted any less unforgiveable in my eyes and, combined with the lack of consequences Kennit faced, I felt the rape scene was ultimately gratuitous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, and Child abuse

divine529's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense slow-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

For those of you who don't know me, the Realm of the Elderlings (RotE) is a series that means everything to me. It's impossible to review something I love and adore as much as I do. Anything I say about this book won't encapsulate the overall feeling and story, so I'm not going to do my normal routine (fully).

This is the third and final book in the Liveship Traders trilogy and the sixth book in the overall RotE series and we continue to follow several characters, mostly from the same family (the Vestrits) with a few exceptions. This takes place in another part of the world - primarily Bingtown and we also get an added Rain Wild portion. As with the other books, it's full of feminism, pirates, dysfunctional families, political intrigue of a different kind than we had with Fitz and complex relationships of all kinds.

Every element I normally do in my breakdowns (writing, plot, characters and world building) is just phenomenal. Hobb's characters and world building in particular are some of the best I've read. It's not a simple act of reading these books, you live them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Sexism, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Violence, Misogyny, Murder, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, and Suicidal thoughts

alexhaydon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Gore, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Death, War, Violence, and Body horror

Minor: Pedophilia

eatreadgamerepeat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

This book was just so intense and honestly I did slump a little in the middle of the book and im not sure if that's just becuase the book was really long and slow or if it was just because I was slumping but honestly its so worth pushing through it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, and Death

kabrahams's review

adventurous dark emotional tense

4.75

I knew that this last book in the trilogy was going to break me, and it did. Still, the ending is more hopeful than I thought it might be given Robin Hobb. Overall, I'm just too in my feelings to form any coherent thoughts and I will miss these characters so much!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual violence

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Child death and Child abuse

ferouz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This was the best book of the Liveship Traders Trilogy. This series has not been my favourite of the Elderling Realms to be honest. The first two were a disappointed but this last back was incredible...until halfway through. The last 50% were difficult to read for various reasons (themes, events, etc...). I do understand some of the choice the author has made for characters arcs yet I wished it would have been dealt in a different way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

binca's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Sexual violence

Minor: Slavery, Child abuse, Death, and Animal death

prairieraven's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Violence, Sexual violence, Gore, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and War

genny'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? Yes

4.25

This book wrenched my heart out! One thing I can say is that the characters went through a huge transformation throughout the series, and Hobb manages to make their development believable. Malta, who I used to hate, became my favorite character by the end. Wintrow, who I used to root for and cherished like a baby, angered me so much that I wished for his death. An emotional excerpt from my reading journal:

"Fuck Vivacia. Fuck Wintrow, especially. Cowardly piece of shit. The only reason he believes Althea is because Etta does. He believes his own aunt not out of his own volition, but because the woman he has a stupid crush on told him to. And still he prances around like Kennit's lapdog."

Yeah, I was going through it. 😆 The priest is gone, and in his place is

a man who has bent his morals so much that he can even excuse rape. I'm disturbed by Hobb's repeated use of sexual assault as a plot device.

I appreciate that characters can develop negatively instead of all of them becoming better people. But it still hurt.

Plenty of readers feel conflicted about Kennit. I do not. The twist in his story was expertly done (honestly, I can't believe I didn't guess it sooner!), but as for Kennit himself...

he deserved far worse than what he got. I didn't want him to die a martyr or a legend. I wanted his allies to turn on him, all of his deceit unveiled, his reputaton ruined. I wanted him annihilated. Instead, we got the complete opposite.

I understand what Hobb was trying to do here, because it mirrors what happens all the time in real life. But man...I have never felt more betrayed.

I loved most of the other characters. Special shoutout to Ophelia and the Teniras, the most optimistic, unproblematic residents of Bingtown! 😅 I thoroughly enjoyed the chapters focusing on rebuilding the city with the Tattooed and Three Ships immigrants. Overall: incredible attention to detail, and solid groundwork for all of the later reveals to make sense. I'm bitter about some characters' fates in the end, but it's still an incredible trilogy. I won't be reading the rest of Realm of the Elderlings yet because I'm emotionally exhausted, but maybe when I've recovered...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, and Slavery

Minor: Pregnancy

meaganita's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Slavery, Murder, and Death

Minor: Pregnancy, Misogyny, and Death of parent