Reviews tagging Injury/injury detail

The Darkest Gold – Die Geliebte, by Raven Kennedy

15 reviews

chaptersofamylea's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

‘You can’t cut off the strings of your puppet and still expect it to move for you.’

4 ⭐️ 

Hands down my favourite of the series so far, it felt gritty and I couldn’t put it down. Was it the best book I ever read? No. Was it entertaining as hell though? Yes. Having the MC get some character development in this book was everything I needed, I was rooting for them and totally here for her villain era (which I hope we see a lot more of!) I didn’t expect a few of the reveals and I’m shocked to say it makes me want to reread the series from the beginning to see if they were plotter throughout or if the knowledge makes me see the series differently. Still felt it could’ve had *more* and while I do like the romance element I’m not sold on it as everyone else seems to be. 

TWs: domestic abuse, controlling relationship, drugging, amputation as a form of punishment, ref to SA, graphic depictions and gore and violence 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual assault, Injury/injury detail, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

shannon_magee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-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? Yes

2.0

Up until about 80% this book was reading as the best of the series so far (despite an aggressive amount of analogies in the writing that made it a struggle to read. You could tell they wanted to be lyrical and meaningful, perfect for a blurb or social media quote, but there were just too many of them and they were too extended, clunking up the narrative. The pace also seemed highly confused, which wound up contributing to a clunky narrative). Unfortunately, at around 84%, this book became a dumping ground for trauma porn. Extensive trauma porn, in an already unabashedly trauma-tastic series. And the payoff is never satisfying enough to make going through the gleefully awful events in this book worth it. Every time I read a book in this series, I’m excited by the potential of the premise and the characters, and every time the writing is overdone and the dramatics so heightened it just leaves be hollow and disappointed. I truly don’t understand why the romantasy community is so happy with this series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Torture, Injury/injury detail, Drug use, Death, Rape, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Confinement, Bullying, Blood, Addiction, and Murder

xlaurareads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

5.0

screaming, crying, throwing up - this book was an absolute banger! i was anxious, i was sad, i was furious, happy, and completely torn apart. the character developmemt, the world-building, the plot twists - everything was amazing and thought through in greatest detail. the twist at the end of the book regarding midas? i wasn't expecting that and i was shocked to the bones. and the ending?

Spoiler

he deserved how auren ended him. every bit of it and more. i hate that bastard with all my heart.

the epilogue wasn't that much needed in my opinion although i greatly appreciate slade's perspective. and what i didn't like too much was the dirty talk. i mean, it was amazing..if it wasn't for the time this book is set in, that just didn't fit too well for me and disturbed my reading experience a teeny weeny bit. however, the book was so exceptional that i cannot for the life of me deduct points for this minor issue. this really might be new favorite series (and that means a lot after acotar had my heart for years). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Injury/injury detail, Pregnancy, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

hannibanani29's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Death, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Moderate: Infidelity, Physical abuse, Cursing, Alcohol, Rape, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, Drug use, Torture, and Murder

Minor: Blood, Addiction, Grief, Injury/injury detail, and Infertility

kodafaith's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

This book actually hurt me to read. Seeing all of the trauma that Auren has endured makes you truly understand her behaviors, why she holds so tightly to Midas and pushes everything else away. Seeing her start to open her eyes to her abuse and then to literally have no choice to but to see

Spoiler

Because dear God Midas did you have to literally drug, mutilate, and torture this poor girl like stalking, brainwashing, using and manipulating wasn’t enough…. Thank god you died

what he has been doing all along.
The breaking in the end was so deserved but so freaking painful. To read everything she went through and just to think “Slade are you almost here… Slade she needs you… SLADE” but to know that Auren really needs to save herself. It was so nauseating to see her endure such painful trauma but I think that is a reason why this series has hit me so much harder than a lot of other fantasy out there…
Just so good. Can’t wait for more and to see how this story is going to end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Torture, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Physical abuse, and Injury/injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse and Drug use

campisforever's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Listen, as part of the series the book is good. And the people who are upset about the perspective of the first sex scene are wrong—it’s great. 

There is, however, absolutely no reason this book should be almost 700 pages long. This one is slower than the other two, it drags, it repeats itself, and it includes points of view that aren’t necessary. Especially the last 70-100 pages, and the last two chapters (which are the same scene, word for word, from two different characters perspectives) are so slow and repetitive. I’m not into the “give me the same scene from this perspective now” because I think it’s lazy writing, honestly, so if I’d known I would have only read one of those chapters instead of both, because there was nothing additive about the second one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/injury detail, Torture, and Addiction

Minor: Pregnancy and Trafficking

cluckieduck's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

These books certainly keep getting better! Also, the fact that she’s managed to make the ribbons their own character is amazing (and heartbreaking, ngl).

I’m going to say that the extra length in this one that helped flesh out some of the characters and plot that was missing in books 1 & 2 for me, but the overall arc is settling in and progressing nicely, then BOOM. That last 20% was such an emotional roller coaster that left me reeling!

The expanding list of multiple POVs was appreciated, though I could do without any more from Malina (I get the reasons but man, she’s a whiny cow).

Excited to see where Glow takes us!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Addiction, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Body horror, Injury/injury detail, Misogyny, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy and Classism

Minor: Vomit

ka_ke's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.0

The spice makes it worth it. Without the spice it would have been unbearable. I enjoyed the Wrath, if they had been more than supporting characters it may have helped the book. Ultimately the twist did catch me off guard, but I wonder what Glow will be about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Trafficking, Classism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Infertility, Violence, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Injury/injury detail, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, and Murder

idealpages's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Gaslighting, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/injury detail, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Drug use

kinskinn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexual content, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/injury detail, Pregnancy, and Physical abuse

Minor: Alcohol