Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

59 reviews

dealingwithdragons's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lilacs_book_bower's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

3.0

Blurb: "In a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic, a desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial lady find a connection on the high seas."  Very mixed feelings about this one.  There is great LGBTQ rep, and the two leads are POC characters, and I appreciated the discussions and seeing the effects of colonization by the Empire.  The Witch had some great stories.  The world building left a lot to be desired, but there were some cool elements and ideas.  
Other than that, I didn't like most of the characters, and didn't even care about the two leads especially.  They fall in love very quickly.  This book is dark, please check the CW.  CW:

even off-page, I don't want to read about child rape.

There are a few plot holes.  There are two endings and I didn't appreciate either of them.  I get what the author is going for

with Evelyn and Florian, it's their reward and they get to be together, but it didn't feel like Florian really has atoned enough to earn that, and "they both turn into mermaids' fits with the magic of the book, but also feels like a story a five year old would tell.

.  The second ending is about a character that I didn't like, so I didn't care about what happens to them, even though, again, I feel like I understand what the author is going for.  
If you like fantasy, especially with good LGBTQ rep, and like stories on the darker side, I would give this one a try.  In spite of the mixed bag of reactions, I would read another from this author.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape

ginadapooh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

pineapple_queen's review against another edition

adventurous medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Outing, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

electrumempousa's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful fast-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? No

2.0

I was so ready to give this five stars right up until the last 5% when I really feel like it was rushed and silly. So much more to be explored that was missing. I loved the central relationships and it was a quick read, but I really feel like another hundred pages could have done sooo much to pad out the ending and also the world itself. Very disappointing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual violence

Referenced off screen sexual violence against a minor

teslis's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

2.5

I don’t know. This book was alright and even good in the beginning but later on

when they leave the Dove

I think it got worse. I think it’s because a lot happens and fast. In the end I also realize that I didn’t like how the book was written. I believe that fantasy is not really my cup of tea at the moment but it will be fun to discuss in my book club! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Torture, Blood, Grief, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

charliethebooklover's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful slow-paced

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

4.25

So. Many. Emotions.
Absolutely no words, this book was amazing! 
Check the content warnings if you choose to read this book. Other than that, read away

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

malva's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

dtierra's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Trafficking, Grief, and War

Minor: Confinement, Drug use, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

There are parts of this book I loved but overall I was disappointed by how little time the main characters had together. Most of the book is spent with them apart and it is painfully slow moving. The pace of the book feels all over the place, parts of it move quite fast and other parts move painstakingly slowly. There are some really beautiful lines on the central romance but I wish there was more. I am extremely disappointed by

the bury your gays trope present in the book, while there is a somewhat happy ending, it felt unnecessary to the plot. The ending of the book, the very last chapter was also a bit unnecessary and confusing to me. It definitely could have been wrapped up better

. The world building was great, I just think Pt 2 of the book could be drastically shortened and I would have loved for Pt 3 to have been given 50-100 more pages!

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.0

I enjoyed this book, but it had potential for so much more. 

I liked the setting and the atmosphere a lot. The world was very intriguing and magical. The book read like a fairy tale... although a gruesome one. I was really shocked by how gruesome this story actually was. There was violence and death and blood and torture on page, and implied rape and assault. Also, topics like colonialism, imperialism, and sexism were present. 
What I absolutely loved was the queer representation and diversity. One main character is gender-fluid, the other a lesbian, there is a non-binary side character. And I liked how these were portrayed.

But the pacing and plot was kind of off. I wish we had more times to get to know the characters, and especially more time with the characters interacting with each other. They spend a lot of time together and get to know each other, but because most of it happens off page, the romance feels very instant and over the top dramatic towards the end. 

The middle part was also weird. I loved the witchcraft element that is introduced, but the magic system is not really explained well. It's interesting, but very confusing. And it's not used enough afterwards to justify how much time we spend learning about it. 

I liked the ending and how all the characters and plots came together. It just would have been more impactful if we had more time before to develop more feelings for everyone and everything that was happening. 

I didn't mind all those things that much because of the fairy tale character of the book. It just could have easily been a 5 star for me with a bit more substance. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Vomit