Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Asterion by Alessa Thorn

1 review

shannasbookshelf's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

"'Did you ever stop to think that he's not the only monster here right now?'"
I'll be honest. I tried reading this earlier, but I had a hard time getting into it. I think there were two reasons. One: it takes maybe a chapter or two to get going, and we don't get the main male love interest's, in this case, Asterion's, PoV initially. (Which is what I'm here for, if I'm candid.) Two: I didn't realize that this was, sort of, a Minotaur retelling. (Thankfully, no spicy scenes happen when Asterion's in the Minotaur form, but there are spicy scenes, and we do get the Minotaur form. Just not in the same scenes.)
This was a great enemies-to-lovers story, providing the right amount of angst, emotion, and spice. It also does a great job in showing the progression of Asterion and Ariadne's love story, even if it does feel rushed at times. I think this book had great character development on both Ariadne's and Asterion's parts, which was nice seeing.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Child death, Violence, Torture, Death, and Blood

One of the memorable scenes was where you see Theseus standing over Asterion's (as the Minotaur) body, working for Pithus. However, Theseus' betrayal, while "surprising" in some sense of the term, didn't come as a shock. I didn't see it coming, but when it happened, the shock value didn't really get communicated in the scene for me. I think this was mainly due to the fact that Theseus, despite being "one of Asterion's closest friends for 3 years," was always the super grouchy character and never really let up on that. (Where Vin, while also grouchy at times, does let up on it. And he genuinely does this.) We also find out here that Minos, Ariadne's "father" (more like her abuser) is more connected to Pithus than the characters and reader know.