Reviews with content warning for War - Weyward

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Reviews tagging 'War'

adriii521's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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snippy_writes's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

tamara_joy's review

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emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

Content Warnings

apslp's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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? No

5.0

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mithridatic's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

jnichols's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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? It's complicated

3.75

This book was much darker than I expected. If considering reading, check the content warnings.
Seemed like it was 90% tormenting women, and 10% justice and hope.
It was well written, but just so oppressively sad. The 3 main female characters do end up getting sorta happy endings. The men in this book are just vile, and don’t all get the justice that they deserve.

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dafne_lh's review

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dark sad medium-paced

3.25

I have very mixed feelings about this book, making this a loooooooong review.

Firstly, it should have come with a lot of trigger warnings. Secondly, the storylines are just too dark for me. I understand what the author was trying to do here, to show the horrors that women have faced and still face today. This is a very important topic which should be discussed in books. However, I felt like there was no hope or chance at a better future at all. If anything, the story portrays a cycle that continues for multiple generations. A cycle that cannot be broken. Nearly every woman in this book has been hurt by a man, and those who have not have lost their husband (Kate’s mother) or their child (Emily). There also only seem to be two decent men in the book, and both of them are from the Weyward line.

There were some things that I just cannot wrap my head around.

Kate’s mother seemingly loving her and knowing she was being abused, but not doing anything about it. What kind of mother does that? Then there was the idea of Simon, Violet’s father, and Frederick all being “bewitched” by the Weyward women. As if they were cursed and it was because of their weirdness/being witches that they end up in these cycles of abuse. Honestly, that presented such a bad message for me and made the whole reading experience so uncomfortable. Let alone all the mentions of mental, physical, and sexual abuse as well as unwanted pregnancies, stillbirths, miscarriage and abortions. Again, this book should have had a load of trigger warnings.

All I knew before reading this book was that it was supposed to be a historical fiction, following three women of the same family throughout time. But the plot got predictable so fast. We all knew Altha was

going to survive, because if Violet and Kate are Weywards, who else would they descend from?

. When it comes to Violet, as soon as Frederick came into the mix, I also knew what would happen here. Simon

returning and finding Kate was also quite obvious, but is it truly hopeful to see Kate take her revenge by having the birds attack him as he is strangling her? This happens to women in real life all the time. They do not have magic to call upon to help them when they are in need. Emily and the police arrive too late in this story. They would have been too late if Kate wasn’t a witch.

As you can tell, I have issues with this book and I cannot say it was an enjoyable read, even if I would be able to recommend it to some of my friends because of the greater societal issues this book brings to the foreground. To me, this read more like a horror story than anything else.

When it comes to the actual writing, I think it is beautiful prose, especially considering this is the author’s debut novel. I also got attached to the three main characters, but I did not feel like there was enough character growth. Throughout the story, I kept going back to the concept of freedom, and what it meant for these women. They all had a connection to nature, which is also the basis of their witchcraft, an element which I absolutely love, but I cannot see how any of them was truly free, not even Kate.

Yes, she finally is able to live without Simon and raise her daughter, but honestly, that daughter was born out of an abusive relationship where Kate was being raped. I feel there would be a lot of potential mental issues down the line connected to that.

All in all, I think this book is an eye-opening book for some, which discusses important societal themes and the history of women. However, I cannot say I would ever want to read this book again, despite its beautiful prose and strong one-liners.

Content Warnings