Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

42 reviews

minervacerridwen's review

dark mysterious relaxing 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

3.75

I enjoyed this book in the way that I enjoy a good action movie: there were lots of exciting and tense moments, good dialogue and good visuals. This helped to make this into a quick read that made me feel a lot of emotions, if only fleetingly. If it were made into a movie, it might be one I'd love to watch: a mix of almost silly James Bond action with the old magic world many people of my generation grew up in but had to leave behind due to its issues - with a good dose of queerness and some racial awareness added in.
The metaphors, painfully relevant to our current society and the rising transphobia in the UK, were delightfully unsubtle. However, sadly, the book seemed to come with its own set of issues. I was puzzled by how a book that's rooted so firmly in the theme of inclusion apparently still views being non-binary as something weird and "difficult to get right", without that ever coming back to bite any of the characters. And then there was the ending...

Major spoiler here, in case you're someone who clicks open spoiler tags automatically: I hope it will be addressed in book 2, but I really didn't like how the "solution" was to give Helena the death penalty, for no other reason than that that was "how things were done". I'm pretty sure (or at least hope) it will have consequences for what follows in book 2, but now it seemed to be treated very lightly. The final chapters felt very rushed and more like bait to draw you into the second book than like a proper ending to the first book. The very final event, however, intrigued me enough that I will have to admit that this baiting technique probably worked on me.

Please mind the content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Hate crime, War, and Racism

kynajayne's review

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

I did enjoy this, the magic system and social justice themes were well executed. I look forward to reading more of the world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Death, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexual content and Confinement

Minor: Homophobia

fronk10's review

adventurous emotional 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

3.5

I’m not sure if it’s just because the other books I’ve read this year were so wonderful, but this was really missing something for me. I loved the world building and thought all the witchy-ness was excellent. I adored the characters, and will always support such a brilliant example of queer joy. But there was nothing that grasped me and made me excited. A good book, and I would recommend, but perhaps just not for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Transphobia

eve81's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Deadnaming, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Racism

readwithria's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven was the political, witchy-sisterhood book I didn’t know I needed.

I really enjoyed this book, and the characters took the cake. The POV characters, their children and wards, their partners, and all of the side characters felt so fleshed out and real. Their relationships were so fun to read about, even the bad ones.

I will say that it wasn’t until well into the book that I felt like I understood how the magic system worked. The delineation between the different types of witches and what they can do, plus the elemental aspect of witchery, made for a lot of information that I still don’t fully grasp.

I’m very excited to read The Shadow Cabinet! 4 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Outing, Transphobia, Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Cursing

Moderate: Blood, War, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Car accident, Forced institutionalization, and Animal death

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

wallflovver's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Blood, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Transphobia

Minor: Car accident, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Bullying

elliesienk's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and War

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

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

ramreadsagain's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.25

first off the ending... the gasp I gusped!! Juno really just went and killed off my favourite character

I loved so much about this, the world-building is great (I love reading different approaches to witches in books) and the entire book is also a fuck you to terfs which is always excellent. 

I found the first 150 pages quite slow, the book started a couple of chapters too early imo and it took a while for the plot to kick off. Possibly too many POVs as I spent a long while just trying to remind myself who was who. 

The characters did feel slightly one-dimensional at times, particularly Elle, but I still loved many of them. I would love to learn more about Diaspora too. 

The final 150 pages were excellent, I sped through them so fast. I really enjoyed the plot development and can't wait to read the next one. Glad I already have it!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Murder

Moderate: Violence, War, and Death

Minor: Sexual content, Infidelity, and Fire/Fire injury