Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Awakening by Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti

8 reviews

mkzvan02's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

cat_is_ok's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.0

This is so bad. The writing, the character development, the world building and the plot are all very underdeveloped. Barely viable as an original work due to the blatant stealing from Harry Potter. It’s almost as if an AI wrote it after being trained on only the parts of Harry Potter where Fenrir Greyback, Dolores Umbridge, Professor Snape, Bellatrix LeStrange and Draco Malfoy were acting their worst. The twins are idiots and make every bad decision possible, even after being shown repeatedly that they are not safe and cannot trust any of the four Heirs. The magic system is extremely stupid because they wanted to tie it to zodiac symbols somehow, but they couldn’t be bothered to actually develop anything that could make sense, so they just sort of throw in some basic astrology terms once in a while and pretend that it fits. The magical creatures have absolutely no rhyme or reason and it’s overly complicated and poorly explained. There is a tense mood the whole book as if it’s leading up to something that will be a big reveal or bring clarity, but that does not happen in this book. The entire thing is just incel t*rture p*rn that is meant to demean all of the female characters, and some of the male characters. The twins do not get any triumphs or moments of retribution or justice at any point in the story. Every time things appear as if they will turn favorable for either or both of the twins, the next action always brings even more pain and struggle for them. There is no possible amount of redemption that could exist to make any of the four heirs or their teachers even slightly palatable as love interests after this book. Viciously trying to humiliate, maim and kill the twins repeatedly is not cute foreplay and anyone who is pretending that it is should be on a watchlist. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

Several scenes of characters being forced to do humiliating and dangerous things by someone magically controlling them, such as forcing someone to let a vampire drain them to near death via mind control. Also sexual assault under magical control. Teachers also participate in magically assaulting students.

swweatykid's review against another edition

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? Yes

2.0

you’ll get to the last page and think “what??” do i need to read the others now even though the writing is so chaotic?  if you want any answers, probably yes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Confinement, Misogyny, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Abandonment

avthrill's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Death of parent, and Abandonment

cait's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I picked this up because everyone seems to be raving about this series, and I was curious.
"The Awakening" follows twin sisters: Tory and Darcy. Tory and Darcy have been in the foster care system since they were orphaned as babies. Now, 18, and kicked out of the system, they are just trying to make enough money to cover rent. But all of those worries seem inconsequential when they find out they are actually the daughters of the Savage King, and they are the rightful descendants of the fae crown. Now they must go through Zodiac Academy to learn about their true home and fight for their birthright.
This book was very fine. There is a lot of violence, nonconsensual acts, and ALOT of bullying, which I had a pretty good idea about before I started reading this. I found the hazing that the other students put Tory and Darcy through to be really off-putting, and the fact that none of the teachers did anything to remotely stop it was disheartening.
This book is definitely HEAVILY influenced by other popular stories, which is fine, but it made the book feel unoriginal.
I do not know if I will continue in this series, but I can now appreciate why everyone seems so enamored with this series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Sexual content

1navn's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury

phdoyle's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment