Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

4 reviews

blacksphinx's review against another edition

tense medium-paced

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

2.0

On one hand, I feel like the main message of this book is important and I'm glad its been so successful. But I bounced off of the extremely causal prose hard, and it was difficult to read so much misogyny directed at women by other women (please stop calling each other cunts holy shit!) 

(I am also very tired of books that go "covid happened but we used magic to make it go away" ugh! And blaming the anti-vax movement on warlocks is so distasteful.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Death of parent, Hate crime, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Outing, Grief, and Misogyny

Moderate: Car accident, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Bullying, Cursing, Medical content, Classism, Lesbophobia, Racism, Confinement, Dysphoria, Violence, and Gaslighting

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, War, Ableism, Abortion, and Emotional abuse

TW: transphobic, misogynistic, and ableist slurs. Internalized misogyny. Mention of drowning.

foxwish's review

adventurous dark emotional lighthearted reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

A gripping storyline all the way through with highly emotive themes and dynamic characters. The plot was intriguing and difficult to predict, the magic system was fun to learn about and I loved how it was linked to nature. 

It was wonderful to read a fantasy story from the perspective of adult women, where many of them have kids/kid charges and it's an accomplishment that the children were all dynamic characters and not frustrating to read about or detrimental to the plot in a way they sometimes are. Themes of motherhood and found family are very strong here.

The romances and friendships all felt organic to me and I was definitely rooting for the budding new romance in the book.

The trans storyline was by far the strongest and was what made this book 5 stars for me, it used a great many talking points I've heard from trans people, allies and TERFs so it was bone chilling how accurate to real life the arguments the characters were having felt.

We also get POC characters and lesbian characters, but their struggles were sidelined somewhat and I am hoping they will get their chance to shine in the next book.

I'm glad the second book is out because I can't wait to read it and find out where these characters go next.

Edit: After reading the second book I've changed my rating to 4 stars as I realised the ending to this book destroys multiple characters storylines and is partially responsible for book 2 being disappointing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Transphobia

Moderate: Car accident, Infidelity, Murder, Outing, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual content, Classism, Ableism, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, and War

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Eating disorder, and Toxic relationship

shellroch285's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.5

-Written by trans woman!!
-Dialogue seemed a little eh sometimes, but fine for the most part
-Depiction of witchcraft not always historically accurate (ik it’s fiction, but I also find that really interesting since I studied the history of witchcraft a bit this past semester)
-Adhered to gender binary a lot (did mention genderfluid/queer people a little bit)
-Brought up valid discussions about how to dismantle white supremacy within societal systems
It took about 70-100 pages for me to get invested, but once I was in, I was in!! Glad to read something so pro-trans, especially since Pride will be here very soon :))

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, and Deadnaming

Minor: Ableism and Death

As mentioned, there is a character who one character will not necessarily deadname but frequently use the wrong set of pronouns for them.

shannnne_reads_words's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Grief, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Toxic friendship, War, Gaslighting, and Kidnapping

Minor: Abortion, Animal death, Child abuse, Outing, Ableism, and Emotional abuse