Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman

16 reviews

ltsang08's review

adventurous dark informative mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Classism, Murder, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Torture, Physical abuse, Blood, Alcohol, Death, Bullying, Animal death, Vomit, Domestic abuse, and Animal cruelty

flickwitch's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content and Violence

Minor: Physical abuse

maur_damar's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Grief

bookishwondergoth's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was a nice, easy to read  historical fiction novel inspired by the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box. Both the story and the prose are nothing spectacular but I still had a fun time. It also has one of the most truly hateable out and out villains I’ve read in a while.

For a book so focused around the black market trade of antiquities, I was a bit disappointed that the role of the British Empire in plundering Greece artifacts was never really raised. There was very little nuance in relation to this subject which threw me out of the book a bit. I think it would have been a more interesting read to have that kind of topic included.

I really enjoyed the side characters (Lady Latimer being a particular favourite).

Overall glad I read this. Recommended to those looking for a nicely paced, ambiguously supernatural historical mystery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal death, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Gore, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

Minor: Kidnapping, War, and Homophobia

Instances of sexism, misogyny and homophobia etc. are in-world and consistent with the time period. They are also challenged, addresses or overcome. Also with regard to the animal death:

the villain of the story kills the main character’s pet bird. It is off-page and the description of its corpse is one line, but the instance is still upsetting.

bubblegirl858's review

adventurous emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.0

Overall, a really well written story and a great twist on the Pandora story. I really enjoyed reading it and would probably read it again. The characters are a range of boring, interesting, valiant and villainous, as well as selfish and selfless which balances the book really well. I will say if you are squeamish at all about injuries and descriptions of that sort to steer clear of this book. Hermes was my favorite character.

The entire time whenever Edward interacted with Cornelius I literally screamed out "He is in love with you, you moron!" because it was painfully obvious to everyone except the literal straight white man which was both hilarious and heartbreaking. Speaking of heartbreaking, Hermes' being killed was the absolute worst thing I had to read, and I was so upset. I will never recover.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death, Sexism, Animal death, and Death of parent

mpbookreviews's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Violence

doodeedoda's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.5

ngl as an archeology graduate the description of how the pithos was dated was... something.
taking a sample from the vase to do a 'stratigraphy analysis'? a stratigraphy analysis on an out-of-context vase?? and then to be like "it predates history itself"??? yeah bs. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol and Vomit

emma3674's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Great book, took some time to get interesting but very unputdownable towards the end, loved the story and the mystery involved

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Animal death, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

abbie_'s review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.5

Quite wonderful!! My favourite kind of historical fiction, incredibly immersive, compelling characters, a marvellous sense of atmosphere. I had to suspend my disbelief a little towards the end but honestly I had such a good time reading this that I didn’t really care. 

If you enjoyed Sarah Winman’s Still Life then I think you’ll enjoy this too!

Thanks to the publisher for my free review copy!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

If you’re squeamish, the injury detail in this book doesn’t hold back! Lots of pus and weeping wounds.

heather_freshparchment's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Death of parent, and Alcoholism

Minor: Physical abuse, Confinement, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Vomit