Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Savage Lands by Stacey Marie Brown

12 reviews

marinou00's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Excrement, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Murder, Police brutality, Torture, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, and Violence

madravingintrovert's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

 

I broke my rules with this series. I normally won't start a new book without reviewing the previous one first. I also try to review each book individually regardless of it being in a series. This series was just that good all the way through. 

Page turner to the max that had me screaming and rage quitting the book only to pick it up 5 minutes later and keep going. There are a few more triggers than I could list but really just know that this takes place in a post-world war setting and is dark in multiple ways. 

Two other triggers worth noting are drug and alcohol use. 

100% I would recommend this to others as long as they are okay with the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Trafficking, Violence, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Bullying, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Torture, Cannibalism, Child death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Physical abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Death, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Blood, Sexual violence, Stalking, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, War, Rape, Sexism, and Slavery

theespressoedition's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

1.0

It's quite possible that this is the worst book I've read all year. I still feel gross days after putting it down. I should have DNF'd, but I kept holding out hope that it would get better. It didn't. If I could give it negative stars, I would.

There is no defined plot or world-building of any kind. It's incredibly confusing and dumps you into the story expecting you to understand everything already. There are occasional mentions of a war and the history of the fae, but nothing definitive enough to help make sense of why things are the way they are.

The story opens with already obnoxious, immature teen angst romance vibes... but it’s an adult novel. Talk about something to make you cringe. I was actually pretty excited about the idea of a friends-to-lovers romance, but yeah, those hopes got dashed almost immediately when it was clear these two would never work anything out because they're both too stupid to actually talk to one another or fight for each other - instead having sex with other people and hiding their emotions.

This book is absolutely disgusting. Like, it made me feel nauseous with the descriptions of gore, sexual violence, and bodily functions happening due to torture throughout. With 60% of it happening within a really awful prison and the other 40% in a whorehouse, things are bound to get ugly... but this was on another level. I genuinely turned green around the gills a few times because of the graphic nature of the book.

Looking for spice? You won't find it here. Not really, anyways. Every sex scene is happening while the two people aren’t even together. They hate each other and can feel one another having sex with other people but they get off on it themselves????? Or something??? It didn’t even make sense. I got so tired of them feeling one another undressing and touching them while they were in two different places. Too weird.

The dialogue (and internal dialogue) was absolute trash. The protagonist was the most “I’m not like other girls” character ever. She constantly talked about how beautiful and strong she was. How self-absorbed can you be, really? Add in the “f-- you,” “you wish” dialogue and it began to read like sloppy fanfic. Just truly terrible.

I plead with you not to read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, and Death

Moderate: Vomit and Torture

thetalesofabookishmom's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

Not as great as all the hype but entertaining despite not loving most of the characters and thinking the main character is a sex craved idiot at times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Murder, and Sexual content

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, and Misogyny

Minor: Slavery, Vomit, and War

after_i_finish_this_chapter's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Physical abuse, and Violence

barelykaidence's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Physical abuse

Minor: Pedophilia

delvie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Everyone's hyping up this book, and I was a victim to that hype. It didn't meet expectations for the level of praise placed upon it.

The gratuitous misogyny and abuse: It felt like the author just piled it on for the sake of piling it on. So edgy. Very sharp. I could be "fine" with it if the abuse was a demonstration of rock bottom for our main character, but as soon as she finds herself on better footing, she laments that corsets are worse torture than the death camp she just experienced. You're telling me I read 200+ pages of violence at the far end of the spectrum expecting it to hold some sort of impact/value to the character (trauma, rock bottom, etc) only to be told in levity that the main character thinks corsets are worse? What was the point of making me read sexual assault every eight pages if it wasn't going to pay off or affect the character in some way? 

"I had worn dresses with bodice tops- they were worse than any torture device [the death camp] could think up" 

Fuck out of my face with that nonsense. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: War

deesquared's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Car accident, Gun violence, Physical abuse, and Torture

brookebeal90's review

Main character is almost unbearable, has a serious case of 'pick me' right from the offset - All men want her, all girls hate her (unless they also want her). Was badly written, character traits were stated like bullet points, MC pointing out why people hate her (because she's too pretty, too thin, too good at fighting, os close to the guy that everyone wants - give me a break). It was also unnecessarily sexual in places where it didn't need it, and was badly done. Love interest..is not interesting, attempt at tension between the two is forced and just..boring. Made it 70% through but couldn't waste anymore time on this.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexism, Torture, and Violence

k_wage's review

adventurous dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Physical abuse