Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

La Gloire à tout prix by Emily Tesh

93 reviews

kylieqrada's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

If I could give this more than 5 stars, I would. An unlikable female lead, THE CHARACTER ARC, social commentary I just 😍 Reminded me a bit of Red Rising, and I would not complain if Emily Tesh wrote 20 more books in this world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Transphobia, Ableism, Sexism, Child abuse, Racism, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape and Abortion

bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.75

Not quite 5 stars but sooooooo close. This book was an absolute ride and I adored every moment. There was a bit of a lull in the middle and I got whiplash a few times with all the changes, but ultimately this was a fantastic examination of cult mentality, facism, radicalisation and deconstruction of dangerously right-wing views. Absolutely brilliant. Will be reading more of Emily Tesh's books for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, War, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Gun violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Blood

lizthelizard's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

Really enjoyed this - check the CWs. I found this to be creative and engaging and actually very fun for having such deeply dark content matter at times. Had a great time reading it, and it took a turn every time I thought I might figure out where the story was settling.

The ending thing with the hair touching was weird as heck though ngl. Could have left that out as it made the actual character growth feel cheaper than it should.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Homophobia, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, War, Xenophobia, and Gaslighting

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

frogggirl2's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

This book wants to deal with a lot of weighty, dark topics (genocide, misogyny, facism, racism) but it does it in a very superficial way because this is YA so it can't really get to where it needs to go to meaningfully discuss these themes.  This book is very simplistic.  

When you give characters do-overs, it removes the tension from the plot.  This book would have been much more interesting if the first true ending of the book was the actual ending of the book.  Far too happy and ending for everything that goes on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Rape, Racism, Sexual assault, Incest, Genocide, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexism, and Suicide

blacksphinx's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Violence, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Sexism, Suicide, Homophobia, Transphobia, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Confinement, Sexual violence, Torture, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

Minor: Abortion and Bullying

mo345's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Xenophobia, Blood, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Rape and Grief

Minor: Medical content, Cursing, Alcohol, and Abortion

The xenophobia tag refers to opinions some characters in the book have about aliens.

westvaleabby's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Racism, Homophobia, and Transphobia

bookswithbethx's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Child abuse, Genocide, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Outing, Torture, Xenophobia, Rape, Sexism, Violence, and War

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Plot: 4★
Prose: 4★
Pace: 4★
Concept/Execution: 5★/4.5★
Characters: 4.75★
Worldbuilding: 4.5★
Ending: 4★

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Suicide, Violence, War, Homophobia, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Gore, Outing, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, and Racism

Minor: Bullying, Blood, Abortion, and Alcohol

poisonenvy's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-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? Yes

4.75

SECOND READTHROUGH, 2024:  Man, this book still slaps. 

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Where to start with this review? I loved this book a lot.  There are a number of content warnings so if you have triggers you should make sure to check them out. 

Following the destruction of Earth, the last scraps of humanity have gone to live on Gaea, a space station that is barely self-sustaining.  Kyr has grown up on this station, trained since birth to be an obedient solider, bent on fighting for humanity against the aliens who have destroyed the planet. Gaea is a radicalized, fascist society, and the novel follows Kyr as she slowly becomes deradicalized. 

This book was great. The characters were all fantastic. It's really easy to hate Kyr. It's really easy to hate a lot of the characters. The process of unlearning all the things they've been taught is long and it's not easy.  

I found that the ending got a little overambitious with some of the things that it wanted to tackle; it lost some of the nuance that makes up the first 3/4ths of the book. Regardless of that though, I still found this to be nearly a five star read. The characters were fantastic, with lots of depth and nuance and so, so many flaws. The prose was great, and I found a lot of the descriptions to be very cinematic. The plot kept me hooked; I didn't want to put down this book the times that I had to.  

There are definitely flaws with this story, but none of them really took away my enjoyment for the novel as a whole. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Genocide, Transphobia, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Rape, Racism, and Adult/minor relationship