Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

7 reviews

noellegrace8's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

4.75

This is such a cool modern (future, actually??) retelling of Cinderella. She is NOTHING like any Cinderella we've read or watched before. She is a mechnic with a good portion of her body being mechanical in and of itself. Meyer does a fantastic job creating interesting plot points that surprise the reader yet also point them to the original source material of Cinderella. Overall a quick pased, clever book. I can't wait to read the next installments! The few issues I had with the book were just that it was a bit hard to get into at first, especially because some of the characters weren't as interesting as they could have been, and sometimes the word usage was odd, almost like she used the word adjacent to what she actually meant.

I don't include the audio performer in my overall star review, but I'd give Rebecca Soler 3.75/5.0. There isn't much to say outside of her performance falling flat. It wasn't actively bad, but there wasn't enough excitement and variance in her narration to intrigue me; my inner reading dialogue is much more enthusiastic than her performance itself is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Ableism

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Grief, Classism, Bullying, Death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Minor: Xenophobia, Deportation, Self harm, Car accident, Colonisation, War, Vomit, Misogyny, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Gun violence, Death of parent, Torture, Confinement, and Violence

Those listed in "graphic" are central themes, although the ableism is more of metaphor (Cinder is a cyborg and treated poorly because of it) than a direct commentary. Moderate categories listed are related to the death of a loved one in the plot, a medical research focus due to the epidemic theme, and the aforementioned ordeal of Cinder being cyborg. "Minor" category items are straightforward and not too present in the book.

christygsp's review against another edition

4.0

 actually really liked this twist on the Cinderella story. So many adaptations attempt to take it in fun and new places but end up feeling much the same as all the others, this was not like that. 
There was enough of the original plot lines that you could see where the Cinderella story comes through, but also enough new plot lines and character quirks that it was basically it’s own story. 
I thought the cyber punk type themes were a cool addition, and the political and romantic elements were great too. 
One complaint I will say was the ending. We are making way for sequels, I get it, but come on? Really? 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement and Slavery

Minor: Torture and Violence

trs01's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Torture, Xenophobia, Medical content, Death, and Child death

catsphodel's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

2.25

This is definitely a poorly aged story. Bringing up a child's fertility after a "trans" joke is weird and quite frankly, distasteful. I appreciate how fans have completely ignored Cinder as European and have instead claimed her as Asian. As for the Asian "influences" of this book I wouldn't consider this hodge podge and mixing of several different cultures anything to get excited about. Oddly both fast paced and a little info dumpy at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Terminal illness, and Child death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Grief, Bullying, Death of parent, Medical trauma, and Death

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Vomit, Transphobia, Body shaming, Violence, Torture, Car accident, and Ableism

reddeddy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Death, Ableism, Dysphoria, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Body shaming, Medical content, Child abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Blood, Child death, Gore, Violence, Body horror, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Gun violence

Minor: Gore, Misogyny, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Murder, Drug use, Slavery, Torture, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Infidelity, Racism, Trafficking, and War

maria_pell's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Ableism, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Medical content

Minor: Excrement

keiwald's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

Finished part one in an hour. I got sucked in so fast, I wasn't expecting to care about the side characters right away. The plot was expected but still had its own uniqueness from the fairytale retelling. Finished the book in less than 24 hours and desperately want to get my hands on the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Self harm, Torture, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Vomit and Gun violence