Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Her Majesty's Royal Coven

Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

12 reviews

vgk's review

2.0

Well, I finished it, but I won't be reading anything more by this author. I could probably write a thousand words or more about what is wrong with this book, but to be honest it's not worth my time. I suppose the biggest problem I had was the characterisation, which was at best two dimensional (more often one). Reminiscent of NK Jemisin's dreadful The City We Became in this regard, the characters are poorly drawn and stereotypical. The author's viewpoint was like that of a 14yo boy who has read a bunch of teen girl magazines and listened to Spice Girls lyrics and thinks they now know about women. The result is unrealistic, juvenile and cringeworthy characters. And I can't even begin to describe how bad the POC and lesbian characters are. The whole thing reads like YA but with decidedly adult content. Dreadful.

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harleyqueen's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The twist at the end Holy shit!!
A story of sisterhood banding together with the prophecy of leviathan rising. Niamh is chosen to teach a young adept to home in on their exceptional powers but is she helping or creating the problem itself and what happens when those with power want more

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kayleighoneillonwheels's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? No

4.5

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wallflovver's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful medium-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

4.75

after i got over the hurdle of switching povs, i really fell into the rhythm of the story

i loved these characters, bar one of course. i really enjoyed them together and seeing their sisterly bond.

the magic system was also so interesting to get into! i liked the lore that made this magic it's own thing, and the reliance on nature was a lovely aspect that gets any magic system points from me!

this did feel like a very direct response to joanne revealing herself as a terf, and i revelled in that! very very enjoyable to me!

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lorriss's review

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emotional mysterious

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

4.5

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bluebreex's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny tense fast-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

5.0

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neni's review

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lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

I really wanted to give this book a higher rating because the whole concept is, in theory, quite cool and full of promise. However, the execution failed spectacularly in several ways:
1 - The biggest flaw for me was the writing. I'm aware this can be somewhat of a personal preference, but the writing style felt juvenile, empty and overly descriptive. There were often massive chunks of info-dumping about the world-building that could have been introduced in other ways, as well as long descriptions of common place objects/concepts intersperced with unnecessary pop culture references that just added clunk to the flow of the story. This is a great example of "telling, not showing". Everything was told to us in the same tone, so that descriptions of outfit colours and characters emotional status felt like they had the same weight.
2 - I went into this not knowing anything at all about the story, so I was quite surprised by the themes in the second half of the book. Not in a negative way. Trying to be as spoiler free as possible here, I think this was an interesting setting to explore the "arguments" that get thrown around when approaching the subject, and I wish we could have focused more on this instead of trying to do 10 other things with the story and the characters. It felt like the author wanted to cram as much representation and equality issues as possible in there, while also keeping it fun and light, and also dramatic and adventurous at the end. It all just felt shallow and not developed enough. I would have prefered to see Theo's story developed in a more sensible, complex way, instead of having the theme thrust upon the reader out of nowhere and have one of the main characters turn into an obnoxious Disney movie Villain half way through. I think it took away from the emotional connection the reader might have had with the characters, and it all ended up feeling a bit like those run of the mill adventure action movies you go see in the theater and immediatelly forget after. Then again, if you're looking for a fun fast read about LGBTQIA+ witches I suppose this isn't a bad choice.
3 - That ending! Brought the writing down half a point I'm sorry to say. I HATE it when author's do that. Just completely unnecessary, out of the blue, plotwist cliffhanger just so the reader feels compelled to immediately jump into reading the next book. I'm sorry. That's cheap af and I will not be continuing on.

Finally, and this isn't really a criticism, more of a funny observation - after the developments of the second half of the book, I cannot, for the life of me, not picture J.K.Rowling anytime a certain white rich TERF bitch is in a scene and that's kinda funny and probably on purpose lol

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