Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

18 reviews

shaemyn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Alcoholism and Child abuse

eileenp59's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

Minor: Biphobia, Body shaming, Child death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Slavery, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Stalking

maeverose's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

                         TL;DR:

Not a lot happens in the first half, mostly an introduction to everything and following Fitz as he grows up and trains to be an assassin. Second half tried to do too many different things back to back. I assume setting stuff up for future books but it felt a bit jumbled. Maybe if the beginning had been condensed it could’ve been spread out better. I really like the writing style and world building. I don’t know if I would say the book itself is too long or more so that big books just can’t keep my attention. I was only mildly interested for a lot of this book.

                       Characters

So far I’m not that connected to Fitz. To me he felt a little void of personality outside of having a strong moral code, liking animals, and being a teenager. Some of the side characters were much more interesting to me. Mainly Chade, Burrich and the Fool. My favorite character so far is the Fool.

‘The gender of the Fool has been disputed. When directly questioned on this matter by a younger and more forward person than I am now, the Fool replied that it was no one's business but his own.’ — You tell ‘em. (I say, as I’ve decided that he’s transmasc non binary..)

                          A Note

For people who haven’t read the book yet: I feel like chapter 15 deserves a bit of a warning. Specifically for telepathic mind rape and suicidal thoughts/attempt. There’s some build up to what happens within that chapter, but it’s much more intense than most of the book leading up to it.

I was gonna include a whole rant about the never corrected ableism but decided I was being over dramatic so I’ll spare you. I just find it annoying that people only ever seem to care about ‘time period accuracy’ (being as this is clearly based on medieval times) when it allows them to treat their marginalized characters poorly. I know this was written 30 years ago but still. It irked me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Slavery, and Pregnancy

Graphic: poisoning, telepathic mind rape, mental loss of self (becoming zombie-like), drowning, in one scene a dog is in a lot of pain and distress due to a bone stuck in its throat. Fitz removes it and the dog is fine, but the scene is very graphic. Moderate: self hatred, suicide baiting, eugenics

angstifies's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense

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

4.25

i have a personal dislike for fantasy books written in first person narration but this book is absolutely the sole exception. i’ve heard tons of praise for Robin Hobb’s writing and man were they right, her characters are brilliant i loved reading about them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

cynicalraven's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

It's very slow. Things start happening in the last 20% of the book.

also too many dead dogs

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Child abuse

Moderate: Misogyny

booksthatburn's review against another edition

emotional

• 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

5.0

ASSASSIN’S APPRENTICE follows Fitz through his childhood and adolescence, as he learns to be an assassin for the king, and what he’s actually willing to kill for.

The worldbuilding is layered, with things explained as Fitz is told them, supplemented by insights from his older self. This leads to a gradually filled-in impression of a complex setting where details are conveyed as they are necessary, and even more is implied through the narrative. This style lends clarity. He discusses both how he felt at the time, as a child and then a teenager, and what he thinks about those events now that he’s an adult. This becomes especially important during sections such as his time under Galen, as the dissonance intensifies between events as they happened and how he was being conditioned to perceive them. There are several moments where something he does as he’s telling the story is juxtaposed with some assertion made by his younger self, showing how something must have changed in the meantime (presumably to be covered somewhere in the trilogy). 

One of my favorite things is his complex relationship with Burrich. How they are to and with each other changes throughout the story. Even when it's changing for the worse, it makes sense, and it's nice to see Fitz's growing understanding of Burrich as a person with his own internal world separate from Fitz. How Fitz views Burrich is often a great proxy for how Fitz is growing and changing, flavored by the dissonance between how Fitz is and how Burrich wants him to be.

There’s a lot of care in the narration, partly due to the balance between Fitz’s memories and his older self’s reactions to and commentaries on the memories, and partly due to what I can best describe as a lack of voyeuristic interest. One of the background plots involves raiders pillaging the coast, and, other than a few scenes where Fitz has to directly fight someone as a result of the raids, there are few descriptions of the kind of violence which accompanies such raids. Said violence is canonically happening, and Fitz frequently discusses the effects he’s observing on the people and the Kingdom which stem from the raids, but in a way that makes sense for his character. This is just one example of how the narration gives the impression of the complexity (and sometimes violence) of Fitz’s world, but does not unnaturally bend his character to direct the story towards it, nor does it shy away when appropriate. 

A great start to the series, I'm ready to read the next one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Miscarriage and Rape

chloereadds's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, and Infertility

liteartha's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.75

oh boy. this is lush, intricately detailed fantasy and hobb is clearly a master at her craft, but my god was this a <i>slow</i> start. i feel like this is the sort of book that i’ll see with new appreciation as i continue on with the many books in this world, but this initial read was a bit challenging to feel properly immersed in until about the two-thirds mark

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Misogyny, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Suicide and Vomit