Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

40 reviews

joayenne's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Infuriating. Overwhelming. Blazing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

thequiltyreader's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.5

I've flip flopped a lot on how to review this book.

Initially I thought this book had a lot of promise based on the blurb and positive reviews. However I have mixed feelings now I've finished it.

Overall I did enjoy the read, however the first half was very slow and incredibly repetitive.  It touched on the life of women around the 1950's / 1960's and what they were often subjected to / expected of them.

I found there was nothing around the development of women's right but there was around dragons rights

.

I would also have preferred to have learnt a bit more about the dragons, how they felt, more around what they explored and why and

also why a lot chose to return and why at that point in time and why hadn't there been anyone else return from earlier dragonings

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I also felt there was a lot of

suggestion that the knots somehow played a role in keeping Alex from dragoning but it was never explained if that was the case.

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So overall I enjoyed it but felt it was lacking in some areas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Death, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Cancer, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

mamaewalk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

4.5

Creative, unique, and utterly badass story. Reads like a memoir. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Misogyny

Minor: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, Fire/Fire injury, and Panic attacks/disorders

gabbishy's review

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Death of parent, Child abuse, Cancer, Abandonment, Grief, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Death, Body horror, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders

lady_valhella's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

The societal challenges women face are  so briliantly and ridiculously exposed in this book. Well maybe not exposed. But the analogy of how we don’t talk about all of the issues that affect us because it is indicent or inappropriate to talk about our reproductive health or our desires or our pain. How the society we built prefers to pretend those things don’t exist and yet we persist and defy and thrive. Thank you for writing this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexism

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Cancer, and Chronic illness

victoria29's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

There were aspects that I enjoyed. Overall, I felt like it was heavy handed. People and situations were either good or bad with little nuance. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Cancer, Homophobia, Abandonment, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Death of parent

tamara_joy's review

challenging emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Sexism, Misogyny, Transphobia, and Homophobia

Moderate: Grief, Abandonment, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Cancer, and Fire/Fire injury

rachel101's review against another edition

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was slow to start but definitely worth staying with, I was completely lost in it and couldn’t put it down…

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Panic attacks/disorders

racheldonna14's review against another edition

emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It felt like this book was written for me. Each line felt purposeful and intentional and I want to remember each and every detail for the rest of my life. Alex's range of emotions leap off the page and are deeply relatable to any person raised as a girl in Catholic School. The expectation of silence, not questioning authority, and maintaining appearances was so relatable and rage inducing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Death of parent, Grief, and Religious bigotry

cheye13's review

mysterious sad 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? No

5.0

This reads very much like a false history or a fictional memoir, which is my absolute favorite genre. The articles and papers inter-spliced were very cool, but I wish there'd been more of them, or that they tied in with Alex's story more. It did feel like it had about ten endings, but I did enjoy seeing where everyone ended up. 

Everything up until the final part (which was primarily that series of endings) was perfect to me. The tangibility of the time periods, the snippets of everyday magic, the characters reaching out to each other. The whole book really embodies a very specific feeling I have reading about being a woman in those times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Sexism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Infidelity, Cancer, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault