Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Powerful by Lauren Roberts

37 reviews

_meganrose's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Torture, Blood, and Death of parent

bmhbiattiwoeytba's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Torture, Violence, and Death of parent

mayareads4fun's review against another edition

emotional funny tense fast-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

3.75

I knew where this was heading considering the end of Powerless but I still held onto hope nonetheless until those last pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Grief, and Abandonment

Minor: Blood

boba_nbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

Spice Rating: 🫑 / 5 🌶️

Powerful added so much context to Powerless, and I absolutely loved it. Even though I knew how this novella was going to end, it still devastated me.

This novella follows Adena--the best friend of the female main character from Powerless, Paedyn. We get a small peek into Adena's life before she meets Paedyn and then follow her journey as Paedyn is going through the trials. When Adena is left alone, she meets a mysterious man named Mak who is also desperate to see someone before the trials. Together they team up to try to sneak into the palace and save their loved ones. In the meantime, Adena and Mak find out that they have more in common than they originally thought.

I knew that Adena was going to die, but her death hit SO much harder when you see it through Mak's eyes and realize that he had to watch it while he was powerless to stop it. My heart!

This is a great companion novel to Powerless. I'm dying to see what happens next in Reckless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Grief, and Abandonment

Minor: Cursing, Violence, and Death of parent

hayleythegoose's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse

bookedandbusy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This novella was incredible and I loved it! I loved Adena is Powerless so seeing her side of things while Pae was doing the trials was interesting! I also loved Makoto and I loved that the book was multi pov!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse and Torture

emilywemily6's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

4.0

I genuinely liked reading this novella,  but not as much as Powerless. I didn’t connect with the characters as well, and it took a bit longer than I expected to get behind their relationship; opposites attract is kind of hard to write well in such a short story in my opinion. But I was thoroughly invested and devastated by the ending. The author has some beautiful writing that is still easy to understand and feel. I wish there was less focus on the romance and more plot though- I would have loved to see the interaction between Adena and the king, or to hear more about the common people and their opinion of the Trials. If Mak isn’t reintroduced later in the series I’ll riot. This was his rebel origin story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Torture, Violence, and Police brutality

Minor: Ableism

bloomingbookworm's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Child abuse, Death, and Death of parent

kyleethecatlady's review against another edition

emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

🥲
It’s tough when you know what’s gonna happen in a book because of another book in the series because the entire time I was reading, I was just waiting for it to happen. 
And MAK 😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief

vj_thompson's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

5.0

“See you in the sky.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Grief, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Stalking, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment