Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Awakening

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Awakening by Susanne Valenti, Caroline Peckham

707 reviews

meredith_j's review

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

It's like Vampire Diaries, Harry Potter (insert mandatory fuck JKR here) and HBO-level nudity all combined into the perfectly angsty, smutty, silly lil' book. I have to admit, the mystery is actually really interesting but the writing style itself is incredibly literal.... It's like the opposite of contrived -- always pushing the story forward without a metaphor/symbolism/imagery in sight. Somehow every professor's last name is the latin word for either their subject, order or elemental power.

But I have to say -- I genuinely loved reading this book. Even with the simplistic writing style, I was kicking my feet and giggling. Honestly, take any fantasy/magic CW show (or something like the Netflix Archie show) and add smut. It was great. 10/10, can't wait for book 2.

Content Warnings

britt33's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Content Warnings

sweetteaandfiction's review

4.0

adventurous challenging dark sad tense 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

This book did not disappoint. It would have been a five star read, but the tone felt YA until all of the sudden there was some surprise spice.

PROS:
♊️World building
💫 Character building
♊️ The Fae alignment with the Zodiac
💫 Variations of the Fae
♊️ Mysterious bad guy

CONS:
💫 There is Bully Romance and then there is just petty bullying. This is the later.
♊️ The entire dance night scene had me livid from start to finish. This is less of a critique because it was well written and more of a trigger warning.

♈️♋️♌️♐️ out of five daily zodiacs

Content Warnings

indrea's review

DID NOT FINISH: 50%

The misogyny and bullying is gross and I genuinely can imagine what, 13books of it?

Content Warnings

purrested_development's review

4.5

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Definitely a book I had to be in the right headspace to read.

It's very CW camp young/new adult drama. Which is the fun of it. But that also makes it pretty rough and cringey sometimes.

If you are ready to go through it with the Vega twins, and possibly relive some of your teenage bullying nightmares then this book is a fun time!

If not, sit it out.

My only real complaints are nit picks. Excited to pick up book 2!

Content Warnings

amandelic's review

4.5

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

emensko's review

3.5

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

dayanitha's review

1.0

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

justlexi30's review against another edition

4.5

challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Overall this is a good story. I did not think it was going to be as good at first. I had a lot of questions and still have some but it was a good way to start the series. The characters have not grown on me yet but I see the potential.

Content Warnings

datakaited's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I admit this is not a “good” book, and 3 stars might be too high, but I raced through it. I would never, ever recommend this to a young woman, as it is garbage with a capital G for so so many reasons. Fellow happily married with not sucky spouses who want a trashy read, sure. This damn universe is cool, the magic is cool, and the full production audiobook was awesome for me as an audiophile. I needed a light, easy audiobook palette cleanser after an epically, brilliant Sanderson book…it was perfect for that (although pushed the nonconsensual boundaries to be called light). Ok but seriously, do not recommend this to anyone who won’t immediately recognize how toxic and horrible the relationships are in this book. This is not romance, this is not healthy, this is not reality.

Content Warnings

More...