Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

A Touch of Chaos by Scarlett St. Clair

11 reviews

siu_rose's review

fast-paced

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

3.0

Well, there were some things I liked, and some things I didn’t, so I just left the rating right in the middle with three stars. I enjoyed this more than I did the earlier Persephone stories, but less than the Hades stories.

There were some clever plot bits and I have always liked how the Greek myths worked in. and I appreciate how the characters have to wrestle with grief and guilt and hard things. 

But I feel like often the plot was too complicated and too simplistic at the same time, and still left me with questions about “now what, how is THAT going to work out in the future…”

Not a bad way to wrap up the series though.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Murder, and Death of parent

crystal689's review

dark emotional tense slow-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? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Kidnapping, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Rape, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence and Blood

Minor: Infertility and Alcohol

brianamorrison's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

The story in this book was captivating however the smut was a bit distracting and unnecessary in this one. I mean, a little is fine but there was too much. This book had some really dark moments and the great battle seemed to wrap up way too easily. That said, it was an entertaining read and a great final book to the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Death of parent, War, Violence, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, Pregnancy, Murder, Kidnapping, Suicide, and Gore

ninahuynh's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Again, I think some of the sex scenes could be faded out or cut out and replaced with more soul-intimate scenes, if that makes sense. Some of the occurances just don't make sense holistically and I don't see Hades or Persephone going that route either. Like they just teleport from a horrid fight scene and then suddenly coitus 🤨😑  I skipped the Hades series as of this review, so it was my first encounter with the different povs and from characters other than Persephone and Hades. I enjoyed that. I think it was also a good way to transition out of this series to the next one!! I love the ending- it was sweet. I am excited to read more on Aphrodite and Hephaestus, and Dionysus and Ariadne.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual violence, War, Cursing, Physical abuse, Death, Body horror, Confinement, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Animal death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gore, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Ableism, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Suicide, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Chronic illness, Rape, and Sexism

mary_catherine's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

1.0

This book was unnecessary graphic and delved into issues such as trauma, sexual assault, explicit rape, suicide, and more without true reason. None of this furthered the plot or was critical to character development. It was done without grace or tact. To add insult to injury, the plot was disappointing and slow. It didn’t feel like it was well thought out and didn’t really align with vibe from the previous books. Overall many aspects of this book felt forced. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Rape, Domestic abuse, Torture, War, and Toxic relationship

belle13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense slow-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

4.75

Amount of spice: 🔥🔥🔥

Explicitness: 🌶️🌶️🌶️   

I actually had pretty low expectations with this book but I was pleasantly surprised! In terms of plot I think this is some of Scarlett’s best work. I liked Persephone so much more in ATOC and I loved her character growth. I also adored all the supporting characters and the whole found family feel this book had. It was even a little heartbreaking which I wasn’t expecting. I think this was a fantastic ending to a series that I’ve loved so much. 

Now I want to see a Lexa and Thanatos story! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Rape, Death of parent, and Sexual assault

frantically's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.5

Sadly, not nearly as strong as the previous books and really disappointing in some aspects. 

I still love Hades and Persephone and they were definitely the highlight in this book for me but it didn't even feel like a Hades and Persephone a book at some point, just...a war book. I also feel like we've lost any aspect of a "modern" retelling – Persephone's media job seems non-existent and all the time is spent in the underworld anyway.

Hermes is reduced to nothing more than comic relief (and bad one at that) and Apollo doesn't appear until like 80% in.

Sooo many people and gods died in this and it all felt so inconsequential and basically noone mourned?? There's horrid things happening and we just don't get any satisfying conclusions.

Definitely my least favourite of the series 🥲 Still love the rest of them though 🫶🏻

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death, Sexual violence, Medical content, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, War, Murder, Body horror, Gore, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Grief, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Death of parent

literaryjada's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Animal death, Rape, Death of parent, Blood, Cursing, Gore, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and War

bmweakley's review against another edition

2.25

I’ve liked this series and was excited to read the final book, but was honestly pretty disappointed. The book felt very drawn out in the beginning and rushed in the end. Overall, I’m disappointed that the series ended like this and feels so rushed and low quality compared to the previous books. 

Most importantly, I don’t understand why the author felt the need to describe sexual assault, both the act and the desire to, in several different instances. The trigger warning was there, but I cannot comprehend what it added to the story. It isn’t like the author

delved into Ariadnes grieving after such a horror like she did when Persephone was attacked. At least with Persephones, it was for character growth. Ariadnes was cruel and unnecessary to detail, especially since it had been previously implied that he’d assault her if he got the chance.

. 

Besides that, the book had such a weird plot pace. A lot of things were left unclear after

the final battle where Persephone defeated Cronos

. There were also weird things added in for no real plot purpose, and seemed to only serve the purpose of adding drama (like when

Persephone watched Hades die, but then he hadn’t actually and it was just Cronos’ magic. Plus she talked about stressing over who would die because of the life she took, but then that was never looped back to??

) The rapid changes of POV was unnecessary and made it hard to get rooted into one persons POV. The conclusion was very quick and sudden, and I’m left feeling like it ended partway through the story. The wrong name was also used a couple of different times (typo?) making the story kind of confusing at points. Also, there was never any clarification on why

Persephone and Hades were able to have sex with each other in their dreams (??) while Hades was in the labyrinth

. Is that power they have or like what was that?? I got the special edition with a chapter from Hermes’ POV and it was… not what I expected? It wasn’t printed in the book, it was a QR code that took you to a digital copy. It was also an old chapter from book 3, which is fine, but seemed weird to loop back to after the ending. It also barely felt like it was from Hermes’ POV. There was a some new dialogue, but very little thought from Hermes and I feel like it gave me nothing that hearing his dialogue in the previous books didn’t give me. At least Hades POV showed what he’d been up to behind the scenes and explained his thoughts and feelings before Persephone could interpret them.  The Hermes POV just felt… unedited? And like the author wrote it super quick just to have something to sell a special edition of the book, which is disappointing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Grief, Sexual violence, Suicide, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, and Rape

georgiamaybrogden's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated

2.5

Glad that there was real consequences of war with major gods dying, but it ended so quickly? Where’s the consequences of those gods dying? Why was the final battle so quick?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Slavery, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Incest