Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Damsel by Elana K. Arnold

31 reviews

kccool12255's review against another edition

This book is so nasty and it has the weirdest descriptions I’ve ever read in my life. This author is trying way too hard to be “ancient” and it comes off strange. There’s also an excerpt of another book of hers in the back with a VERY graphic description of oral s*x, and the ACTUAL book contains very graphic descriptions of the same things, including the main character getting f*ngered non-consensually. I don’t want to read books like this, I don’t get why every single author thinks they have to include spice in their books. Stop marketing this trash to young adults, or put content warnings like dark romance authors do. Not everyone wants to read that, believe it or not. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Body shaming, Grief, Death, and Death of parent

ariamelia's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

• 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

5.0

Devastating in the best way. I sobbed through most of the book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Animal cruelty, Blood, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Violence

thebookskeptic's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Violence, Animal death, and Sexual assault

yulecogs's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

0.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexism, Suicide, Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Body horror, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Body shaming

singalana's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

The first thing you need to understand about this book is that this is NOT a children’s book, and I don’t think it’s a YA book either. At least the audiobook is falsely advertised as Children and YA.

I read some reviews, and I think part of the “problem” with this book is that people start reading it with entirely wrong expectations. The book takes the classic “a prince saves a damsel from a dragon”-trope and tells it from the damsel’s perspective. So, in a way, it’s a fairytale retelling.

Prince Emory saves Ama from a dragon. Ama has no memory of her life before being rescued. As she learns more about her saviour and what is expected of her, she starts to wonder whether she has been saved after all.

The writing style is beautiful and very fitting for a story like this. I listened to this as an audiobook, and the narrator (Elizabeth Knowelden) tells the story in a lovely way, albeit her voice is barely a whisper in parts, so I could not listen to this audiobook in a noisy place.

But let’s get back to the story. It’s NOT a romantic story, and it’s NOT a happy story. If you are familiar with Robin Hobb’s books and her villains, the villain in this book is on par with them. If you like reading about how things get progressively worse for the protagonist and can stomach some heavy topics, I’d definitely recommend this book. But do not go into this thinking that this is a feminist retelling of a classic fairytale because I think you’ll be disappointed.

Spoilers!

I have two main complaints with this book. I didn’t agree with the author’s choice of the three “weapons” needed to conquer a damsel. It was weird and off-putting. My second complaint is that I had to suffer through 98 % of misery to get to the end, which was over very quickly. The ending was satisfying, and I think that the last sentence about the Queen Mother witnessing the dragon’s rise was poetic. But still, 98 % of this book is pure misery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Blood, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Suicide, Death, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Kidnapping, and Emotional abuse

schnatti's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicide and Self harm

allie_schick's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Sexual assault

Moderate: Animal cruelty

allisonsmith120's review

dark tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Rape, Blood, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Minor: Self harm, Alcohol, and Suicide

aliciaofalaska's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Animal death, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexism

lizbethandthelifeinbetween's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This is not the book it was marketed as. I can't even say it's YA.

The writing is so good. I'm going yo get that out of the way. But everything else... I had to put this down multiple times a comb through reviews to make sure I wasn't the only one baffled by this. It has some.scenes that could have been in Game of Thrones, making the tone very inconsistent when bu all other accounts this feels like a YA book. 

I understand what the author was trying to do: make a statement on abuse cycles, and how they're perpetrated. That part was OK. It's the ending that gets me. I don't understand it. It was so weird and unnecessary. Also, I woild have liked more build-up to Ama freeing herself. It all happened so fast, especially when the author took over 10% of the book building up to lilling the dragon (and not telling us HOW u til the very end, and its so stupid. I understand Ama's relationship to the dragon and I do like it, but the other part with Emory was just a big NO). And when we do find out what happens it's so unsatisfactory. So much is said yet nothing happens. I think the ideas were there but it was poorly executed, and when dealing with this sort of subject matter you can't mess it up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Rape, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny