Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall

33 reviews

emilysunflowers's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

abby_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

📱
This wasn't a book for me. I really wanted to like it. I thought the summary was good and I kept trying to like it. I didn't connect with the characters or the plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Minor: Racism, Slavery, and Death of parent

cosypuck's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Loved the tone, vibes and concept of this but as other people have mentioned, it felt like two plots crammed into one book and the romance wasn't overly believable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Rape and Transphobia

kay_w's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

A great book but the last third started slow and then began to feel rushed towards the end.

I loved the whole concept and execution of the narrator. Without it I don’t think I would’ve have enjoyed the book as much.

I’m very keen to read more of Alexis Hall’s books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Excrement, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War

garbage_mcsmutly's review

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

A delightful adventure of two young women's love, in a magical version of regency England that's full of witches and fairies and old gods and magic. I sometimes have trouble getting into sapphic romances but this one was a quick easy read that grabbed me right away. The narrative framing was great.

The whodunnit that we start with seemed very obvious, but then it turned out to not be the real focus of the story, so I was more okay with it having been obvious. The rest of the story was well done. 

And Alexis Hall always treats the characters (especially the queer ones) with the respect and nuance they deserve, which I really appreciate.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual content, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Racism, Blood, Kidnapping, and Classism

Minor: Rape, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Despite all the content warnings, this was a pretty easy, low-to-medium stakes read; nothing terribly traumatic to most readers.

dragongirl271's review

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Racism and Death of parent

booksthatburn's review

funny lighthearted 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

4.0

MORTAL FOLLIES is a story of curses and romance, narrated by a faerie intimated to be Robin/Puck of A Midsummer Night's Dream. While it is set in 1814, Puck seems to be telling the story from some time further in the future, possibly in the 21st century. Maelys seems to be cursed, and keeps running into a woman nicknamed "the Duke of Annadale" who is rumored to have murdered her own father and brothers. She's also rumored to know magic, and seems to be Maelys's only chance at getting rid of the curse (as long as she's not really the one who cast it). 

The romance was fun, and the stakes escalated appropriately. I liked the story but found Puck frustrating as a narrator. Because they are recalling these events from so far in the future, their interjections kept me from sinking completely into the 19th century setting. It seems like these may form some overarching story which moves between books, but it happened to hit upon a style I don't personally enjoy.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Death of parent, War, and Classism

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

hazel_oat's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Minor: Racism, Slavery, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia

sommermeyer27's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Sexual content

Moderate: Animal death and Murder

Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

blewballoon's review against another edition

dark emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

I'm giving this a 3 because I can see how it could work for the right reader, but unfortunately it didn't work for me. The fairy narrator's commentary is mostly what ruined my reading experience. I didn't find it funny or enhancing to the story, and it broke my immersion constantly. I feel like I can understand what it was going for, but it missed the mark in my opinion and as I was reading I wished it had been cut entirely. Due to the narration, I felt very removed from the human characters in the story and it was harder to get invested in them or their plot, which is paced erratically. In addition to the pacing feeling off, I thought the romance did as well. I did not feel the chemistry, and I didn't want these women to be together. It's lamp-shaded in the text that the Duke is a Byronic broody character, but she came off as dry and cold to me rather than mysterious and deep. I don't know if maybe this just needed some more time and editing, or I wasn't in the mood, but I didn't have the good time reading this that I had wanted to. I listened to the audiobook at 1.6 speed, if I had been reading it myself I probably would have taken weeks to finish because I wasn't into it. Still a big fan of Alexis Hall and I'll definitely be reading more of their books, just not more of this series probably.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, and Death of parent