Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Last Wish: Introducing the Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski

28 reviews

chf1895's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny sad medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence and Racism

lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

It was certainly fun to recognize scenes from the show and how they interpreted it. The Law of Surprise chapter in particular was a lot of fun. However, be forewarned that this book — as is common in a lot of grimdark adult fantasy — contains a lot of misogyny & violence against women (usually not on-page, but retold by men as either a joke or a way to explain the monster haunting their town). And because of that, I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I’d hoped.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny and Violence

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

warlockdorian's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Drug use, Kidnapping, Slavery, Violence, Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Infertility, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, and Sexism

jmeyers888's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Blood, Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence, Trafficking, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, and Rape

padme's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.0

This book was a complicated one to review because I love TW3 and I've really enjoyed the Witcher on Netflix, despite its flaws. So many people have told me to check out the books, but I've always hesitated because I've also heard that the depictions of women in the books.... aren't great. 

So I went in knowing what to expect. And I've got to admit, it was mostly a fun read! I liked getting more insights into Geralt and the other characters, and reading the original source material was really entertaining. But, unfortunately, the other side of it was also true. The female characters were not very well handled, which hampered my enjoyment as a female reader. I can see why guys (and plenty of girls) can read this series without any issue, but it took me aback after reading a lot of female-written fantasy novels over the past few years. There are sections of this book that are serious contenders for "she breasted boobily down the stairs" awards, not to mention the amount of unnecessary violence against women. Rape is mentioned in nearly every single one of the short stories, and that takes its toll on me mentally. 

I have a lot more to say about each of the stories individually, but I think I'll leave it at this for now. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Incest, Sexism, and Rape

lucecanon's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

1.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Blood, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Incest and Torture

ohthatsgrayt's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Cursing, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual violence, and War

jewelkr's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

My adult kid gave me this book as a birthday present because we enjoyed watching the Netflix series together.  This is one of the cases when the moving image production is better than the book.  I'd like to say it's because the stories were written in the previous century by a boomer male and obviously men's opinions of women/people have changed so much since then but regrettably  I can't - women's lives are still a full of  inequity and fear.  I will say that the people who produced the series addressed a lot of the absolutely disgusting misogyny in the book, as well as restringing the story in a cohesive manner and giving Geralt a personality.  Reading one account after another of what a woman (always referred to as a "girl" by the author) looks like, whether she passes the male-imposed standard for attractiveness, the incredible, cliche'ed detail of their breast-enhancing, thigh-revealing, hip thrusting outifts (compared to the male characters of whom very little is said about what they wear), the sexualization of the fight scenes between the Witcher and his female foes (always thighs and breasts exposed during a viscous fight to the death), the opening scene of an actual girl sexually attacking the Witcher in his sleep as part of her priestess training - it was all so gross that I had a hard time processing the stories behind these disturbing revelations of what men think when they see women.  The stories were interesting, although I was hoping for more of Geralt's back story, and you have to keep in mind that these stories preceded the Game of Thrones celebrity not to find them kind of hackneyed.  Sadly, no matter what male writers imagine, women are always relegated to one of three roles - virgin or girl I'd like to have sex with, whore or in this case demon, and female bringing beverages to men.  If we are imagining a different world, couldn't we fantasize something different for the women for change?

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, War, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Body shaming, Death of parent, Body horror, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

kevin_the_intern's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Body shaming, Sexism, and Violence

knerys's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Deadnaming, Genocide, Gore, Child abuse, Child death, Murder, Misogyny, Animal death, and Violence

Minor: Torture, Suicide, and Sexual violence