Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore

6 reviews

imds's review

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Violence, Abandonment, Vomit, Child abuse, Grief, Sexual violence, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Child death, Trafficking, Bullying, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Drug use, Pregnancy, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

lizziaha's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

My main qualm with this book is that survival stories just aren’t really my thing. Luckily for me, there were other parts to this book. I particularly loved Hava’s relationships with Jacky, Linny, and Giddon. Something about the way that Hava is always expecting to be ignored or rejected and then someone (usually Giddon or Linny and sometimes Bitterblue) comes along and proves her wrong is so compelling. I love that even though there’s a broad cast of characters, each one feels distinct, and their personalities are complex, even if they don’t play a huge role in the book.  The blue foxes are such a wonderful addition to the story and the way the audiobook narrator voiced them just made them so adorable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Abandonment, Murder, Animal cruelty, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Moderate: Kidnapping, Blood, Gore, Trafficking, Drug use, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Grief, Homophobia, and Rape

Minor: Sexism, Misogyny, Torture, and Classism

sonshinelibrarian's review against another edition

5.0

Wow. This was just as good and just as rough as Bitterblue. Cashore continues to deal with the trauma and PTSD and emotional baggage and damage caused by King Leck, this time with Hava. In a lot of ways Hava seems younger than her 20 (21?) years, but it's so clear the ways her growth has been hindered by everything she's gone through. And Cashore lets her grow without glossing over anything. Hava literally has to relearn how to think about herself and about others, to find a way to move forward while realizing and acknowledging that the past will always affect her in some ways. I pretty much cried straight through the last third of this book. I'm ready to cry just writing this review.

Trigger warnings abound for this book, but Cashore handles everything with a sense of hope that keeps it from getting too dark. This book destroyed me in the best possible way and, like with Bitterblue, I'll be thinking about it for years to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Animal cruelty, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Murder, Abandonment, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Child abuse and Pedophilia

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.75

If this book was 100-200 pages shorter, it would have been fantastic. I liked the actual plot events and hava's character arc but because the book was so long and so slow, I started getting annoyed with hava and her behaviours. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Rape, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, and Blood

gracefully_jk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Animal death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Dementia

Minor: Abandonment, Confinement, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Rape, and Sexual violence

I’m using so many tags to try and make sure I’m covering everything. Much of this is only small mentions, or failed attempts, or only spoken of vaguely or in flashback memories; most of it is handled with great delicacy and gentleness. The one thing to note is the injury detail/blood warning: there is some relatively explicitly described injury, including amputation. Specifically:

The characters find themselves stranded in an arctic-like environment; one person gets frostbite and has their toes amputated, while another person gets an unspecified injury to their leg and has it amputated. Both of these procedures and their effect on the people who received them (as well as on the main character) is described in fairly good detail, so if that sort of thing bothers you, please tread carefully. You can skip it, but it does get mentioned a few times, and the aftermath is quite evident. No one dies of these injuries.

hyleore's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-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

5.0

This might be my new favourite in the series. I often like first-person narration less than I do third-person, but in this case I think it was perfect, because Hava thinks and experiences things in such a unique way that it's fascinating, and nice, and touching to be in her head as we see this story unfold.

I love this series, and how similar stories unfold in new ways with new characters each time. I think it's amazing, and I get so emotional and passionate each time. It always involves a sleepless night of reading. It always involves tears, not in a bad way. I guess these are some of my favourite books. I needed a space to ramble about that x)

But this one is even better, because of the foxes.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment and Sexual content

Minor: Sexual violence