Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

167 reviews

c8ln18's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Wow, going into this book I had pretty much no idea what it was. I simply heard found-family with a slowburn romance and I was like 🤷‍♀️. This book was so much better than I had anticipated, considering I don’t hear that many people talking about it.
Summary: This book is about Blue whose from a family of psychics, but holds no powers of her own, except making others stronger. She meets a group of boys from a local private school, called “Raven Boys” and joins them on a strange quest to find a Welsh King in the middle of the Virginia woods. Hijinks ensue.

My thoughts: The beginning was very, very slow for me. I was incredibly confused at first, and had tentatively put the book down. I randomly picked it back up 3 weeks later, just to test the waters; and ironically I was about 15 pages away from the good part starting. I was hooked so quick after that and read 80% in one night. I absolutely loved the relationship that boys had, it was so heartwarming. Adam’s story breaks my heart, and coming from not a rich background I completely understand his gripes with money. Unfortunately, I had sort of spoiled (accidentally) some of the twists and i’m kind of mad at myself now, because I wish I had an authentic reaction to it. But nonetheless it was still quite good. 

I’m still warming up to Ronan, but I think the next book is about him so we’ll see how it goes. Also I thought it was funny that Blue pretty much only worked at her job one night in the entire book when it was plot relevant- and was free to galavant off with the boys every other day💀 I also notice that for me, the main plot of the book actually is less what I’m invested in compared to the relationships with the characters. Like yeah you can wander around the woods for a dead Welsh king but I want the banter!! 
Just borrowed the next book from the library so we shall see. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Murder

ladythana's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Death

Moderate: Murder, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Child death

Minor: Suicide attempt and Classism

val_theburrowofstories's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This series has been in my TBR since 2018, so I figured I should start 2024 by finally reading it and I'm so glad to say I enjoyed it a lot and finished the audiobook in one day (great narrator)!

I really liked the characters and can't wait to see more of them, I love how Blue is so independent but also relies on her family to help her and they are always there for her; I want to know more about Gansey to have him as favorite, I see the potential, but we'll see; I already love Adam and just want to protect him but also smack him for his pride lol; Ronan is starting to grow on me but is going to take time with his personality ; and for whatever little we get to see of Noah I'm liking him too I like Noah (never getting over this personal things because it's just so funny, can't believe I avoided spoilers for SIX years only to go into twitter that day, read their names and then see how Noah

is a ghost lmao I mean I wasn't sure if he wasn't joking at the beginning when he said that he had been dead for 7 years, but the biggest surprise was that he was the boy murdered by the boys's professor, that would've good to find out on my own, but no big deal)

ALSO, I know I'm not the only one who saw the connection here: The Raven Boys reminded me of The Marauders! (don't expect something exactly like them, just something similar in dynamics, personalities, role in the group, but it was nice to see)

Love all the paranormal stuff about being able to see ghosts and the souls of people who will die, this "prophecy" on Blue, Ronan's

power with dreams that made him being able to take out an animal to the real world!?

and I'm excited to see more of that in the 2nd book.

I agree with other reviews though that this has an open ending, you won't get answers here, in fact you will have more questions on how things work and what the characters are going to do about it, but you will really want to know them and continue with this story and the characters. So if you're okay with that read this book.

So happy my first book of the year was so good.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Murder, Self harm, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Death

If you want to know more about the Trigger Warnings I'm leaving the specifics here, but some are spoilers and be aware some might affect you. For a longer list of the Triggers look into the feature of Storygraph, but I think this are the most notable: SELF HARM (doesn't happen to any of the main characters, it just shocked me how this random character just dropped a comment about

"slitting her wrists" as if it was a joke.

) ;; MURDER / DEATH (There's 2 cases of this, both involving 17 yo kids being both the murder and the victim. They happen around these pages

Won't say names so it's not an spoiler, but you find out about one at 30% and the other one happens near the end.

) ;; GUN VIOLENCE (no names mentioned:

a guy in his 20's having a 17yo kid at gun point

, and the Murder involves a gun.) ;; KIDNAPPING (let's just say the bad guy gets kidnapped so who cares lol) ;; DOMESTIC ABUSE BOTH PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL INVOLVING A CHILD (We see just one big scene of this but that's enough, one of the boys suffers from this at home and you will hate his father. If you want to know the name, it happens to

Adam , one of Gansey's best friend

) ;; ALCOHOLISM (No one is surprised to hear that the abusive father is the one who drinks.)

oscarnotwildin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, Classism, and Domestic abuse

readwithsarah's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

Wasn't sure what to expect going into this series and it wasn't quite what I thought, but I enjoyed it! The plot is interesting and I like Blue's character. The vibes are a lot darker than I initially thought, but I was intrigued and engaged throughout.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Minor: Suicide attempt and Death

chloenrogers's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

currently_introverting's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous emotional

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

3.75

A good start to a series. I knew going in that this is a “vibes” book which helped, and it’s a relatively fast read. Even so there’s a couple chapters I was confused by being included that seem to be extraneous. Overall a lot of short chapters which I like. 

This gave me definite call backs to The Whispering Dark which I feel like is a lesser known ya fantasy stand-alone that if you liked this you would probably love.

I look forward to continuing the series as I hear it gets better with each book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Classism, Murder, and Gun violence

Minor: Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Misogyny, and Suicide attempt

kitfkat's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Violence, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Murder

lilly_reads98's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Blood