Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

7 reviews

grayreadsmanga's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Death, Confinement, Alcohol, Murder, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Torture, Misogyny, and Blood

Moderate: Medical content, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Rape, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Incest

Minor: Body horror and Vomit

fantasy discrimination

7hunder's review

adventurous challenging dark fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Incest, Murder, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Abortion, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Animal death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Infertility, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Cursing, Death, Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Torture

jasminawithab's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

starting my very slow read through of the whole series since i don't like the show, but i love the video games and the fanfics. 

the writing feels a bit disjointed at times but from what ive seen, thats because of the translator. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Child death, Incest, Infertility, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

Minor: Abandonment, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Ableism

ohthatsgrayt's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Cursing, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual violence, and War

knerys's review

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Deadnaming, Genocide, Gore, Child abuse, Child death, Murder, Misogyny, Animal death, and Violence

Minor: Torture, Suicide, and Sexual violence

katmahalia's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

I will be completely honest and say I didn’t follow the plot of the short stories that closely because I listened to the audiobook while playing video games, but from what I heard I really enjoyed it. The pacing did not feel too slow as it can in fantasy adventuring stories, and the action never felt disjointed or separated from the plot. And I liked the whole the-princesses-are-the-monsters twist on fairy tale plots, it was a nice nod to the fact that every fairy tale and legend has a bigger story behind it. 

My only gripe: the love interests are not interesting or lovely, mostly just annoying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Medical trauma, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Trafficking, Xenophobia, and Ableism

Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and War

booksthatburn's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

THE LAST WISH is a prequel to the Witcher main series, a collection of stories from Geralt’s life before the events of THE BLOOD OF ELVES. Each story is based or at least inspired by a fairy tale or bit of folklore.

I didn’t get much of a sense of Geralt from these stories alone, but having read the first book of the main series his characterization here seemed consistent with that. The titular story, “The Last Wish” had really strong characterization with an early meeting of Yennifer. She’s really well-written here, and that story alone is enough for me to recommend this to anyone interested in the broader series.

As a collection of fairytale retellings, I enjoyed this. It approaches most of them from strange angles which meant they felt great and fresh as stories. My favorite is the one which is clearly inspired by Beauty and the Beast. Given the blend of magic and corrupted desires already present in the series, the fairy tales fit right into the world of the Witcher.

Because this a collection of short stories from Geralt’s life before the main series of books, it doesn’t quite work to analyze the ending or an overall plot. I suspect a re-read might make it clearer, but the framing between stories was confusing to me and it wasn’t until several stories in that I figured out that the start of each chapter strung together to create an narrative distinct from the individual stories. 

This is good for anyone looking for additional Witcher content, but I don’t work it works well on its own or as a first introduction to the character and the world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexism, Ableism, Confinement, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Body horror, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Rape, Animal death, and Child death

Minor: Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, Incest, Torture, Suicide, and Animal cruelty