Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Damsel by Evelyn Skye

5 reviews

savreads28's review

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Grief, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, and Confinement

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

I had more fun with this than I thought I would! I thought from the cover that it was a retelling of Maleficent, but it was much cooler than that. 

I saw in some reviews that people didn't like that Elodie was portrayed as "different from the other girls" in that she was smarter. I interpreted her as being autistic-coded (e.g. struggling to find the right response in conversations, having to script dialogue ahead of time, not being interested in arbitrary requirements, etc), so to me, she was different because her mind focused on things that others would not have. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Murder, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Grief, Cursing, Animal death, and Body horror

Minor: Sexual content, Alcohol, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, and Bullying

schnaucl's review

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

4.5

I liked it.   I particularly liked how the princesses helped each other to try and survive. 

Which of course, made the betrayal by the first princess more impactful.

I also liked the contrast between Elodie and her sister.  Her younger sister is, of course, in love with the romance of the story being told and the opulence of the palace.   Elodie is more skeptical and aware of the huge disparities between their kingdoms.

There's also some lovely development with her stepmother.

I also really like that so much depends on Elodie learning the dragon's language.

The ending doesn't make a lot of sense however.  I kind of get Elodie becoming a dragon or at least half dragon after her blood merges with the dragon's.  I don't really get the first dragon suddenly being able to lay viable eggs.  There's certainly no suggestion that Elodie contributed to creating the eggs and they're eggs, so it's not parthenogenesis. 

She also seems to have focused entirely on her new kingdom at then end instead of also helping her old kingdom, which didn't sit quite right.

But the lesson that she shouldn't have to entirely give up her life in service of others was a good one.   There's a balance to be struck between caring for others and always putting yourself last.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Animal death

devynreadsnovels's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Miscarriage, and Fire/Fire injury

chaptersofmads's review against another edition

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Moderate: Death, Body horror, Animal death, Grief, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Child death