Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Una maldición oscura y solitaria by Brigid Kemmerer

83 reviews

qrschulte's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Enjoyable book, but I didn’t love it as a whole. And I CALLED IT!

Things I loved: 
- a protagonist with a disability who is affected by their disability but not defined by it. So refreshing that she was a fully realized person
- the Rhen narrator. Honestly, the book might have been better with just him narrating the whole thing. 
- believable reasoning for why someone from our world could ride a fucking horse

Things I did not love: 
- How whiny the Harper narrator made her sound sometimes. It made it a lot less believable it was the same character between the narrators. 
- The monster narration (so fucking creepy/scary). Could have done without that. 
- The parts where it was said Harper was “not like other girls” *cue vomiting*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Self harm, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Gun violence, and Infidelity

raypaws's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

thought i wouldn't like it too much at first , but it ended up being really enjoyable! i tend to enjoy fairy tale retellings so i may be biased, but it was a great slowburn and hard to put down :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Cancer and Chronic illness

taryn_g's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Gore, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Ableism, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Vomit

katievallin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Ableism, Child death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Vomit, and Abandonment

asahome's review against another edition

4.0

A man falls for the 399th woman dropped into his lap to court. A woman labeled inferior for her cerebral palsy suddenly finds a way to have it not be a problem.

Content Warnings added by A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer - Book Trigger Warnings
Representation: Disability (Cerebral palsy), MLM couple (side characters)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and War

Moderate: Gun violence, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Alcohol

annorabrady's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Ableism

lilacs_book_bower's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

I unfortunately wasn't a huge fan of this.  Harper was very quick to accept her situation, and also really should have made the connection between Rhen and the monster much sooner.  I feel like we are supposed to think Rhen grew and changed, but it felt like he had already done most of that before the book even began. Other than the main three characters, I don't feel like we spent enough time with anyone else (including Harper's family) to care about them.  None of the minor characters had more than one or two traits.  The plot twist at the end, to set up the sequel, came out of nowhere. On the plus side, kind of, I appreciated that Harper has cerebral palsy, and am always glad to see representation for people, but as the author does not have CP, nor do I, I cannot speak to the accuracy of the representation (and I recognize people's lives and experiences with CP can vary widely!). I'm wondering if I should rate this lower actually, but I did like the relationship between Harper and Rhen wasn't rushed, and I liked Rhen and Grey's friendship as well.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

mo_books_read's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I love the fantasy element and how it's a dual pov and with the female lead you truly feel that she is a fish out of water in the fantasy world. Also she has cerebral palsy which gives her a limp but she never lets it define/ makes her whole personality but it is there and she works around it and is still a complete lovable badass.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

thatbookbitch's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Self harm, Blood, Vomit, and Alcohol

diana_raquel's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

“The choices we face may not be the choices we want, but they are choices nonetheless.”

As I said in other reviews, Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite fairy tales. Therefore, I'm always looking for retellings of this fairy tale. But I'm always very cautious because not everything that is marketed as a retelling is really a retelling or they are but they are really bad books. And so, I was reticent in starting this trilogy, especially because is a hyped one. It seems that, in social media, everyone and their mother loves this trilogy. 

Nonetheless, I decided to read it. And I ended up loving it! The bones of the original fairy tale are there, but it also can stand up as its own story. The characters are interesting and well-written (and there is disability representation, which is a positive point). The story is well-structured and the pacing is just right. I loved it! Its probably one of my favorite books of 2023. 

Overall, it's a solid story that I recommend if you're looking for retellings that can be their own story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcohol