Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

51 reviews

emmajh91's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Transphobia, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Hate crime, Car accident, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Dysphoria, Confinement, Alcohol, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, War, and Toxic friendship

blewballoon's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Gonna get a bit more "political" than I typically do, since this is a quite "political" book. If you are the type of person who asks yourself "I don't know, I feel like the stuff JK Rowling says in her tweets isn't that big a deal?" and you are genuinely curious to know why it is a big deal, then this might be a good book to help explain it to you. If you are a TERF, you will hate this book. I didn't like this book either, but not for that reason. I didn't like this book in the same ways I didn't like The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin: dwelling on the power that racists/sexists/homophobes/transphobes/etc have just bums me out. I know things suck. I read to remind myself that sometimes people don't suck. I read to keep myself from falling into a pit of despair about the state of the world. Apart from Niamh, Theo, and Holly, I didn't really like any of the characters. I absolutely hated the ending. I felt like I knew what was coming the whole time and just wanted it to be over. I gave it 3 stars because of the intention, the world-building, the setting, and there were some funny lines. I don't think this is a bad book, it just didn't suit me even though I agree with its message. The narrator for the audiobook was really fantastic, I'll be looking for more books narrated by them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Grief, and Racism

Minor: Drug use, War, and Sexual assault

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.

amyvl93's review

lighthearted mysterious 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

2.5

 I so wanted to love this book and series, but this was a bit of a miss for me. Her Majesty's Royal Coven is set in an alternative contemporary UK, where witches and wizards exist and work for the government (sort of) through official covens and cabals which are hidden in plain sight from the 'mundane' population (HMRC - get it). The plot follows four women who were friends in childhood and who are all reeling from a recent magical civil war; Helena who is now the Head Witch of HMRC, Leonie who has established her own more inclusive coven, Niamh reeling from the loss of her husband and living her best vet life in Hebden Bridge and Elle who just wants her home life to stay perfect. They are thrown together again when Helena becomes convinced they are facing a mortal threat to their safety.

In terms of what did work well, whenever we side-barred away from the main plot to information about the world and the witch lore was really well crafted. I could have read a whole novel about the witches history - and to be honest, would have actually quite liked to read the novel about the events prior to this one. I also really liked Niamh as a protagonist, she felt the most rounded of the women whose heads we spend time in and again, a novel just following her using her healing powers to be a vet would have been a wholesome good time.

However, lots about this just didn't work for me. I found the prose to often feel quite juvenile, with the women feeling a lot younger than they actually were. There's so much slang and pop culture references in here, which felt very cringe and already aged the book despite it being a recent release. The teenage characters also didn't feel believable - a lot of their dialogue didn't feel at all recognisable as how teens actually speak to each other.

Many of the characters felt very shallowly defined by their identities with little space for nuance - Helena's villain arc ultimately felt quite a stretch, and Leonie seemed defined by her blackness and her queerness which feels at odds of the message of the book to see people as more than their identities. I agree with the messages that Dawson wants to get across here, but they felt quite heavy handed. This is a shame as there's such a need to challenge transphobic rhetoric, but I'm not sure if someone stumbling across this novel who may have other views would have their minds changed.

The ending also made me so mad it killed any vague notion I may have had of finishing the series...a miss for me; but many love it so may be one to check out if you want a pacey fantasy read.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Grief

shannenscribbles's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Child abuse, Bullying, Animal death, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Torture, and Abandonment

queencatroyal's review

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I love how this presents women that are firmly over 30, its difficult to find books that celebrate women over 30, especially urban fantasy. Plus I found the plotline with Theo very interesting

the way it explores terfism is very interesting, but also feels like our world. There is no allusion in Juno's writing, she hits us straight in the face with an issue taken directly out of our world

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Deadnaming, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Car accident, Grief, and Outing

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

courtnoodles's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Car accident, Death of parent, Child abuse, Drug use, Murder, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Grief, and Outing

Moderate: Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Confinement

hematthews's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Medical trauma, Outing, Violence, Hate crime, Gaslighting, Transphobia, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Deadnaming, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Car accident