Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu

22 reviews

growintogardens's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

The art is so beautiful. The story is a little confusing at times and quite dark.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, Gore, Violence, and War

Moderate: Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Child death, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Child abuse, Confinement, Torture, and Medical trauma

cthulhu_calamari's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Trafficking, Child abuse, Body horror, Torture, Sexual violence, Gore, Child death, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Physical abuse

Minor: Toxic friendship and Genocide

itisnatal's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, and Slavery

proudtobeabookaholic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

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

3.0

Maika Halfwolf is a 17-year-old survivor in the war between humans and Arcnics. In search of her past she becomes both hunter and hunted. At the same time the monster within her starts to awaken. 

I've been wanting to read this series for a long time, but now that I've read the first book I'm not sure what I really think about it. It's an unusually complex world building for a graphic novel, so I sometimes had trouble understanding all connections. Maika is also a rather complex character, and I shift between feeling sorry for her and thinking she behaves poorly. I enjoy the steampunk inspired environment and the style of drawing, but I find it unnecessarily bloody and violent. The fact that it takes place in an alternative Asia is interesting, but the question is if it's enough for me to keep reading the series? I honestly don't know. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Torture, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Medical trauma, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cannibalism, and Death

baibe's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Slavery, Torture, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Trafficking, Cannibalism, and Kidnapping

joscelynhe's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, Grief, Kidnapping, and Physical abuse

jenniferlynnkrohn's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, War, Xenophobia, Blood, Torture, Trafficking, Gore, Grief, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Violence, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Confinement, Child death, Death, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Murder

eli_like_a_lie's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

I'd say my biggest flaw in this is neither the art (which is stunning) nor the story which is complex and intricate.  It's the combination of them, there is so much text that it doesn't let the art breathe, and at times the story feels unnecessary slow for the sake of the art

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Kidnapping, Gore, Slavery, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Religious bigotry, and Police brutality

the_bookish_rose's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I’ve had this book waiting on my shelf for *a while*, so I’m glad I finally got around to it. I did not expect for it to be so dark, but the illustrations really make up for it! It isn’t a lighthearted tale, but I like the way it was handled for the main character to not be so much of a 100% good or bad guy.

My only wish is that I wish that some of the exposition would’ve happened sooner, since I didn’t fully understand the world building until I was almost done. I also wish I could’ve gotten to know the main character Maika more than what I got of her, but I think that leaves more suspense for the next volume 😅. I really like the magical system in the book, and I really look forward to continuing the series- I’ve been on a graphic novel kick lately and it’s really cool! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Child abuse, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Self harm, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Death, and Confinement

itsmemiana's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

 it was a lot darker than I was expecting but still very cool. and the artwork is absolutely stunning. Kippa is my favourite character, she's so adorable.

look up trigger warnings before reading if you get easily triggered. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Confinement, Slavery, War, Child death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Torture