Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Herc by Phoenicia Rogerson

4 reviews

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.75

This definitely gave a pretty comprehensive overview of Hercules and all of the people who interacted or were affected by him. It's definitely a sad story and the 1997 animation of Hercules doesn't touch the darkness at all. It was quite an easy read and I liked the structure of the stories and how they were weaved together. It was pretty easy to keep most of the names and stories straight but a few times, the I names were hard to keep track 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual assault, War, Sexism, Child death, Alcohol, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Medical content, Animal death, Slavery, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Grief, and Alcoholism

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

queerloras's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Death of parent, Grief, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, Murder, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Medical trauma, Self harm, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Sexual violence, War, Domestic abuse, Gore, and Slavery

gondorgirl's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Violence, War, Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Death of parent, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Slavery

emmsbookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative 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

4.5

Herc is the story of Hercules/Heracles, told from the varying perspectives of those who were close to him; friends, family, foe and colleagues.  

I love the way this book was written, its use of colloquialisms and jokes made the story fun and refreshing, it was such a good contrast and break from some of the more serious and sadder events happening within the plot.  Some parts really had me laughing out loud and the injection of modern vernacular and slang at times made the story feel all the more accessible and like it wasn’t trying to take itself to seriously.  Additionally, the varied points of view that made up the story made the story flow quickly and meant that plot didn’t get stale or lag at all.  The different voices driving the story made it well rounded and gave the story an added dimension, because Hercules is such a prolific figure in Greek Mythology, the cast of characters is extensive.  Keeping track of the names can be difficult at times, utilising the list of characters in the back is a helpful tool that I recommend.

I liked that Hercules could be the subject of the story, but it didn’t glorify him or try to excuse any of his actions.  If anything it was quite critical of him, even when the protagonist was one of the characters who had largely positive relationships and interactions with him we saw him in a less than glorious, certainly not Disney positive manner.  I am personally not the biggest Hercules fan and the structure of the story was really gratifying at times, but there is a large amount of loss in it. 

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin Australia for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review, these thoughts are all my own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcoholism, Slavery, War, Death, Animal death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Violence, Vomit, and Murder