Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

6 reviews

ekcd_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Significantly better than the second book. Some good slow burn re Locke and Sabetha. Makes me sad that its been 11 years waiting for the fourth book. Woof

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Sexual content, Torture, Alcohol, Body horror, Death, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Gore, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Abandonment, Misogyny, Rape, and Vomit

felofhe's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Classism, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, and Torture

corvicore's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

 

well that was a little disappointing. i'm not really sure how to summarize my thoughts so here are some bullet points:

•  
  Started off strong but what the FUCK was that twist and ending
• Stuff that got set up and went nowhere:
  •  
    Locke’s near death experience and his conversation with Bug 
     
  •  
    Sabetha feeling unheard by the rest of the team and disliking Locke stepping up as leader 
     
  •  
    Jean. like all of him. He was sidelined so hard and for why
     
  •  
    ezri :( her death feels meaningless
     
  •  
    regal??? Why? The fuck? Did you take away my one joy and love ? like ugh this is part of a wider issue i have with the series where it feels like jean and locke are never allowed to grow their gang and whenever they do the plot forcibly isolates them (calo/galdo bug getting offed in the first book, ezri getting offed in the second book, regal being completely ignored at the start of the third and sabetha leaving at the end) 
     
    •  
      It’s one thing to create an episodic series with a status quo and it’s another thing to ignore the logical conclusion to these character arcs
       
•  
  I wish I liked sabetha better. Five year game beth was the classic (overdone) femme fatale and teenage sabetha was an unlikable bitch.
   
  •  
    I get that the theater story is about the gentlemen bastards being awful teenagers who need to stop being awful teenagers but it doesn’t work with sabetha because we don’t have any prior first impressions of her. With Locke Jean and the twins we got to know them in the first book so we’re more forgiving of their assholery; of course they’re being dicks, they’re teens! We know that they’ll mellow out into the characters that we love. We don’t have any of that prior experience with Sabetha, so her cruelty is less forgivable. And to make matters worse, her adult version is flatter than a wooden board so it’s not like I can even look forward to her present interactions with Locke. SPEAKING OF LOCKE
     
•  
  Why. just. 
   
•  
  why?
   
•  
  The reason why I liked Locke so much was because he was a nobody, a nameless Catchfire orphan who stole his way into a better life. This whole Lamor Acanthus thing kind of ruins that for me. I’m sick of chosen ones. I’m sick of magical drama. Just give me a plain old bastard with some plain old bastardly plans and im happy. 
   
•  
  Politics are too fucking boring man. I wish there was more espionage and roguery
   
•  
  I did like seeing calo and galdo again! Miss those two </3
•  
  what was up with the weird ass night-skinned stuff this book? last book had people of colour in it and it wasn't a big deal, it feels immersion breaking. on top of that, are we not going to talk about how the theatre plot line was resolved by framing a black man for murder? like hi how did that get into print. 
   
  
  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Death, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Vomit

Moderate: Murder, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Bullying, Fatphobia, Classism, and Child abuse

Minor: Medical content, Racism, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy

jupitermond's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape

vittorioseg's review against another edition

mysterious sad slow-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

1.0

This are two novellas who were forcefully mashed together and added 200 pages of bland filling. It never go anywhere, it barely had jokes, the stakes were nonexistent in the "prank" war of the gentleman bastard and it was worldbuilding that ended, once again, with John and Locke with nothing. This was just filler for, I think, the second series. Background of the sad and tragic 
figure that is Locke of the second trilogy and my god, it was boring. It was tedious. I laughed in some instances, sure, but you can cut 2/3 of the book and it would lose nothing. This should have been a novella. A 200 pages novella at most, an interlude between here and the actual meat of the series. 

But I honestly don't think there is anything else for the series. The introduction of the dark forces and eldritch bullshit just made it trite. The author can write romance at all and the reincarnation angle just made Locke more insubstantial, more a pastiche than anything noteworthy.  This was just a tour of how utterly eclipsed the gentleman bastards are in the world, how insignificant, how much they can fall (just like last book) and I guess its an honest representation of the depression of the author, but its not worthy the time I put with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

christian08'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content