Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Nightshade by Keri Lake

6 reviews

lauraleafromthelibrary's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Ahhh smh — par for the course with Keri Lake — I’m honestly in love with the first half of all her stories and then they completely go downhill for me. I did love the angels & demons vibe of this one. That ending was not it for me. I may or may not read the conclusion story (book two).

Wins:

• The purgatory-type setting
• Dudes with wings
• Lustina’s backstory (historical perspective was so much better)
• OTP trope
• Creepy demons (the thrills)
• Constantine (the movie) vibes 
• Jane Eyre (the book) vibes; Rochester in a gothic castle atmosphere
• Dual timeline — multi perspective

Losses:

• Farryn’s whiny-ass perspective 
• Alphahole behaviour
• Aggressive sex scenes
• About 100 pages TOO FUCKING LONG
• the pregnancy omg NO

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

tiffanyg's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.0

Not for me but I did finish it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

miahutchinsonshaw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

readundancies's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Humour me for a second and try to send your mind way back to the end of 2000’s when fallen angels and demons were top tier in the young adult reading demographic.

Do you remember the craze?

Because I do.

And I was all about that shit.

Lauren Kate’s Fallen series, Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush series, the list goes on, and I could not stop picking them up.

So you could say I’m a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to reading the subgenre.

Nightshade contains a lot of tropes that were prevalent during the peak of the fallen angel era but I haven’t necessarily seen them combined in this manner before, even if I have enjoyed them separately in the past. 

The worldbuilding was pretty fairly done, the tension between love interests was palpable and I love me the reincarnation trope so there’s no complaints from me on that front.

That being said, I just wasn’t connecting with the characters. I felt for them at times, I sympathized at others, but they never gripped me.

Some may say that this was too long but the contents do seem to merit the length for the most part.

Not sure I’ve completely grown out of my intense like for fallen angels, but I will say that this isn’t a bad addition to the subgenre. 

It’s just not my favourite either.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.5

Fell too hard and too fast for Jericho! Perfectly broody and growly. Farryn was amazingly refreshing as a female MC. She made smart decisions and had realistic reactions to everything, which turned put to be pretty funny in some cases. The alternate timelines was also a really interesting storytelling mechanism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

jmadsen110's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder