Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

4 reviews

foxwish's review against another edition

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

2.5

Keyne is the most compelling character in the book and the actual plot of the Twa Sisters seemed very tagged on, the plot reveals, particulary

Tristan being a secret Saxon leader

was very obvious to me so I found how late that plot reveal was in the story irritating as it made a lot of the characters appear dumb.

The magic system was highly derivative other than the connection to the land aspect, characters like Gwen and Mori were highly enjoyable. The book itself was fine to read, but I wish it had either entirely focused on Keyne or on both Riva and Sinne as I felt like both storylines suffered from having to share time with the other. For me this resulted in Keyne's plot being a more interesting read and feeling very annoyed at the way Sinne and Riva's plot merged for the climax of the book. 

I also despised the way Riva's story ended

I cannot stand when characters avoid facing justice, Riva chose not to save her sister and Sinne died because of it and although her own people hate her she gets to choose to go the enemy kingdom to have children and be the lady of a far bigger kingdom. I suppose you could argue that never seeing her own kingdom again, giving up her magic and never seeing Keyne again is punishment enough but I think she deserved worse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Transphobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Child death

mostlyvoidpartiallystars's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

A beautiful, heartbreaking, but inspiring book. The worldbuilding is rich. I love the combination of magical realism & historical fiction, it felt seamlessly woven in. I appreciated the strong anti-colonial themes. The disability representation is decent - I started out hesitant over how it was being handled, but I loved the progression. 

Finally, a recurring section I'm going to be adding to all my reviews going forward: Do they bury their gays?

No. The only queer/queer adjacent characters are a trans man, a bigender person, and the trans man's girlfriend, who isn't queer herself, but is part of a queer romance given her boyfriend is trans. None of these characters die, and no queer romances end tragically

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Sexual content, Murder, Ableism, War, Transphobia, Deadnaming, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Rape, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, and Physical abuse

zghutcheson01's review

adventurous emotional 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

4.5

While I wasn't really interested in Riva or Sinne in the first 150 pages, by the middle and throughout the end all of the siblings had compelling stories and beautiful character arcs. I eas very wary when I recognized the Aurthurian references but it seems to be more references and I wouldn't call it an Arthurian story. I also was very familiar with the ballad "The Twa Sisters" before reading and I think it gave the whole thing a much more tragic lens considering the first few chapters bear little to no resemblance to the song.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Death of parent, Child death, Pregnancy, Grief, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Biphobia, Physical abuse, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Religious bigotry

nicnevin's review

adventurous challenging mysterious tense 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

Interesting story about ancient Britons holding off against the Saxons. I worked out the twist with a character pretty early on and the two sisters sides of tge story interested me far less than the one of Keyne

(Constantine).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Death, Grief, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Outing, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, and War