Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb

21 reviews

poisonenvy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

5.0

I don't know where to even begin with this review. This book was excellent. The prose was great, the characters were great. Everything that I wondered whether it would be utilized eventually was, in fact, eventually utilized. I was also glad when theories I started developing last book came to fruition in this book. 

I wish there was more to say on this, and I'm sure there probably is, but honestly, I'm just really glad I discovered Robin Hobb this year. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Moderate: Gaslighting and Child abuse

Minor: Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Slavery

tori_mccausland's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Drug use, Confinement, Sexism, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and Emotional abuse

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, War, Kidnapping, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Abandonment, Drug use, Sexual content, Slavery, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Domestic abuse, Torture, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Death of parent

Minor: Ableism, Suicide, Self harm, Infidelity, Excrement, and Pregnancy

Earthquakes and aftermath. Near-drowning. Nonconsensual drugging. Attempted rape, including of a teenager and a sleeping/drugged person. Victim blaming/rape culture. Relationships between teenagers and adults.

kaziaroo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, War, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Drug use, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Vomit, and Confinement

Minor: Ableism and Child abuse

noodletheriddle's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Trafficking

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

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

mariebrunelm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-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 wouldn't say that Ship of Destiny let me down. It made me feel a lot, and that in itself is a victory. The characters are so real and flawed that I wish I could bang them on the head with a frying pan, yes, but if Robin Hobb's character writing wasn't stellar, that wouldn't happen.
However, I do find that the first half of this chunky volume drags. I just can't pretend I'm interested in what happens, because I'm not as invested in the characters as I am in the Farseer, Tawny Man and Fitz & Fool trilogies. However, my heart soars when we find passing mentions of these series & characters in Ship of Destiny, and one scene in particular is one of my favourites all books considered.
Do tread with caution, this book in particular deals with rape in an uncomfortably raw way, as much the act as its consequences.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Slavery

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

sofie1705's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Gaslighting