Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb

15 reviews

luise96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

I went through this book super fast and didn’t even noticed when I reached the end. Mostly because so little happens in this book, but Robin Hobb again managed to write amazing characters that I already love (and hate) and do some incredible world building. This book is very clearly meant as a set-up for the following books to come. The book is a bit shorter than her other books, so it feels like maybe one book got cut into two or something like that. I am excited about what will come next with the dragons!

I really liked the overarching theme of „disabled“ or just different people (and dragons) and how most see them as unfit to live and should be killed at birth, curious to see what will happen with this theme still. 

LOL This closet was made out glass for sure. I was happy to see some more queer representation in this book, after I had to endure some pretty homophobic thoughts from Fitz. But sometimes I just would like to read a fantasy book where homophobia wasn‘t a thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism

alexiconic's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious relaxing slow-paced

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

4.25

This book is basically what would happen if you would take “no plot, just vibes” and made it fantasy. 

Which isn’t to say there was no plot. There was, the story was moving; things were absolutely happening, slowly but surely. But at the same time, the characters, their musings, and their relations to one another moved the book along most. And that was really cool! 

It made the book slow down and still ensured every page was gripping. It also made for a diverse group of characters about whom there was always more to learn, and we as the reader kept learning. 

There were a few times where the writing style didn’t entirely work for me. A times, the direct style can feel like it’s telling the reader too directly what a character is feeling, thinking, implying. Most of the time it worked, sometimes it didn’t. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, and Sexism

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

4.25

I always find it jarring to go from the six duchies to the rain wilds/bingtown, but as always, after a while, I'm sucked into this world. Definitely want to book some characters on the head but overall, I like them all and can't wait to see what happens. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ruark's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

pulleamurmeli's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective slow-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? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

kaziaroo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I'm never sure how I feel about multiple-POV books but this is one of the best examples I've seen of it done right. One minute I would be swayed by one POV's rose-tinted impression of another character, only to have that impression blown out of the water by seeing that character's own perspective in the next chapter. The characters' duplicitousness and reactions to each other made the story thrilling and tense, even when plotwise things were progressing slowly. I loved every second.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

Minor: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Murder, and Pregnancy

Several detailed descriptions of handling and eating meat (both fresh and cooked).

talonsontypewriters's review

adventurous tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Grief, and Cannibalism

Minor: Child death, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death of parent, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

sassmistress's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

It's a very slow-paced book, but the writing is really enticing. Definitely gets a little more exciting towards the end and ends on a cliffhanger. Most of the slowness seems to come from weaving the backstories needed for the various characters. I like the subtle pro-life themes, Austen-style society, and expert emotional manipulation by the author. Would rate higher but for the graphic sexual content. 

Reminds me of A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan, if you're looking for more of the Bingtown/Alise story line. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Abandonment

Minor: Death, Slavery, and Alcohol

Emotional abuse from a spouse and from a parent, lying (nearly to the point of gaslighting) about an affair. Three graphic sex scenes-- one an unpleasantly dutiful consummation of marriage, one martial rape, and one violent fade-to-black between the two men having the aforementioned affair. Heavy prejudice based on "birth defects" for which infants are normally abandoned to die, injuries are described in detail--pus, cutting away putrified flesh, pulling out a sick dragon's scales and impaling to siphon blood, and

touching the blood flow and tasting it.

Descriptions of the effects of war and gentrification. Lots of prejudice (besides visible birth differences, there is also some racial/national prejudice). An uncomfortable amount of mysogyny/sexism, both systemic and individual.

joelcharig's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.0

Probably one of the slowest novels I've read, nearly up there with J.R.R. Tolkien's work. Honestly, this first book of the quadrilogy felt like its sole purpose was to introduce the characters, as not much happened in terms of plot or events.
If the next three books pick up the pace, I can forgive the above. If all four books are akin to this one, I may struggle.

But that being said, a lot of consideration was put into the writing; it's very thorough in terms of character development and description. You genuinely feel as if you're inside the characters' heads as the perspective shifts from one to another. Hobb is superb at achieving that.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Emotional abuse and Blood

gracecrandall's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, Cannibalism, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment