Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

73 reviews

maddox22's review

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Deadnaming, Child abuse, Death, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Violence, Outing, and Transphobia

warlocksarecool21's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.5

Overall, I thought it was a fun book that played with the common lore around witches. The strength of this book was the relevant discussion around intersectional feminism and the pervasive transphobia that has cropped up in both the social and political consciousness of this day and age. I think it does a good job exploring why some people, white cis women especially, cling so hard to transphobic rhetoric and how they’re actually hurting themselves in the process. The book also touches on the perils of white feminism and why it is necessary to approach the dismantling of the patriarchy and white supremacy with an intersectional feminist lense. While I definitely appreciate that the author tackled these issues, as transphobia is rampant right now, I do think it’s presented in a way that’s meant to be for a reader who’s never really considered these things before. I definitely think that it’s important to have these kinds of books, but I think if you’ve already engaged with queer and feminist theory (and if you’re queer and/or BIPOC) you probably already understand all this and might think it’s a little heavy-handed. It’s a definitely a response to the bigotry of a certain British children’s fantasy author and the rancid politics of the UK recently, so I understand why the author took the approach they did. You still might appreciate it but I did feel that this book is not necessarily for younger queer people and experienced activists. 

All that being said, I did really enjoy Theo’s character and how Niamh stepped up to care for her (and raised hell on her behalf). They were my favorite part of the book and I thought their bond was very sweet. I also loved seeing Theo’s journey of self-discovery and the trans joy that she experiences. I enjoyed the other characters (except Helena🤢) but I didn’t really resonate with them. They did have distinct personalities, but I feel like their problems were just a little too millenial for me to care about and I think the writing was generic enough that I wasn’t further moved to be invested in them. I do hope Leonie’s character is centered more in the next book, I think her story has a lot to say and I wanted to see more of her Diaspora coven (which is for non-white witches). 

 My rating is lower, because the writing was kind of cliche at times. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun and witty, but nothing really groundbreaking. I think if you like watching blockbuster movies you’d have fun with this. I will probably read the next book because I was not expecting the cliffhanger at the very end. Again, it’s a fun witchy book with social commentary, and if you haven’t thought much about transphobia and feminism you might find it to be reflective. 

(There is a lot of graphic transphobic rhetoric in the perspective of one of the characters, Helena, so be aware of that if it might be upsetting to you.) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Transphobia, Violence, Animal death, Cursing, Kidnapping, Drug use, Outing, and Sexual content

atamano's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Transphobia, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Homophobia, Child abuse, Colonisation, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, War, Blood, and Violence

Minor: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, and Cursing

lorriss's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Transphobia, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Car accident, Confinement, Deadnaming, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Violence, and War

Moderate: Medical content, Miscarriage, Gaslighting, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Alcohol, Classism, Colonisation, and Infidelity

Minor: Child death, Excrement, Lesbophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Slavery, Abortion, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

deleore's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Transphobia, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Dysphoria, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

lira_the_recluse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Transphobia, Violence, and Drug use

bookwyrmdancer's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Violence, Dysphoria, Death, Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Racism, and Murder

corvinscorner's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Grief, Homophobia, Classism, Deadnaming, Death, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Sexism, Violence, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship

neni's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Outing, Cursing, Deadnaming, Hate crime, Transphobia, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Animal cruelty

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