Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Strange the Dreamer (Owlcrate Exclusive) by Laini Taylor

40 reviews

stripedstone's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Blood, Rape, Child death, Sexual violence, Grief, Confinement, Violence, Pregnancy, and Kidnapping

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous 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 gave me Miyazaki vibes and I say that as someone who strongly dislikes the comparison of almost any book to his movies because I rarely agree. I was specifically thinking about Laputa a lot, but also bits of Howl's and Spirited Away.

Just really beautiful writing, very descriptive imagery that built a very lush and intriguing world. I am very excited to read the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Confinement, Kidnapping, Rape, and Slavery

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

rape/SA:

nothing descriptive or on page, but it is discussed as something that happened regularly in the past of this society under the gods

lifeonasofa's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

5.0

Strange the Dreamer 🦋

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 Stars 

I adored this book 😭 I was so worried at the start as I went in blind. The descriptive writing, whilst beautiful, had me doubting if I could make it through this chonk of a book. But I needn’t have worried 🥰

Laini creates such a clear picture of the world. The premise of the book, the plot itself - so original. Books opening with the promise of adventure, aren’t usually my thing but I was absorbed completely once we met Sarai and her fellow blues 👀

The characters are the reason this book won my heart. They were really well developed, I felt I knew each and every one of them. The whole romance thing was done in such a delicate way, I didn’t mind it. 💕

And that ending! How dare you!! I’ll never recover 🤯

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, War, Violence, Murder, Confinement, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

carolined314's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

Enjoyed this one a lot, and also it really missed the mark with racism allegories and some odd depictions of trauma. I am also soooo tired of the magical orphan saving the day by being fancy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Xenophobia

Moderate: Colonisation, Violence, Bullying, Rape, Death, Kidnapping, Grief, Child death, Confinement, and Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy and Sexual content

xena42's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

4.0

Beautifully written, magical and hopeful yet challenging and dark story about mysterious people with otherworldly and dangerous powers, and the city who fears them. Glad I read it when the second book is available to pick up immediately, since it ends on a cliffhanger.

On the negative side: 

Note that the adult/minor relationship tag refers to a 20-year-old in a romantic relationship with a 17-year-old, which I personally think is close enough in age to be acceptable in the world of this story, although other readers may not agree, as in our real world it seems rather sus for a 3rd year college student to be dating an 11th grader in high school.

There are also descriptions of a sexually active 15-year-old with their teenage lover, plus mentions of another young couple who are sleeping together. All the teenage sex, despite not being graphically described but only alluded to artistically, was rather off-putting because an adult writer should not be encouraging her adolescent readers to engage in sex - it leads to consequences like STDs/STIs, unwanted pregnancies, and emotions that are too complicated for most young people to understand.

This inevitably results in broken hearts and emotional trauma in the majority of cases, which then leads to some (or many) people having difficulty finding love as adults because their teen romances ripped a hole in their heart they've not been able to repair so far. For real, I know people in their 50s who still haven't recovered from their adolescent entanglements and that's why they are single today... and that's why their would-be partner is also single. These are consequences that resulted in the unhappiness of two people (much like Eril-Fane and Azareen in this book, although in their case they had no choice in the matter).

So if you're a teenager reading this review - don't be inspired by the exploits of the young lovers in this book, and instead wait until you're older to chase... "that." You'll have more of a chance to mature and develop so that you also meet somebody mature who can give you the true love you'll want to receive and give in return.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Racial slurs, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Child abuse, Gore, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Child death, Confinement, Genocide, Murder, and Racism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, War, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

lejuletre's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Abandonment, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Death, Confinement, Pregnancy, Rape, and Misogyny

jackilegs's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

I ADORED this. it’s hard for me to imagine anyone disliking this book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and War

Minor: Rape

jg93'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Minor: Sexual content

seforana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Blood, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent and Grief

kathlyn's review against another edition

4.5

This book was a really good surprise. I was totally swept away in the world of blue gods and a lost city. The story and world felt so different than many of the other fantasy books. In a lot of ways, it was just weird and I mean that in a good way. It was so beautifully written and felt like reading an awesome dream. I wanted to enter the world so badly the whole time. 
Something to note is that this book is really on the cusp between young adult and adult. It’s published as YA but I feel like a lot of it’s content and themes are dark enough to push into adult territory. I think it’s fine for 16+ but younger young adult readers (12-14) might be too young. 
This book lost half a star because Lazlo’s character often felt shallow to me. He was a little too perfect, especially compared to some of the other characters’ complexity. I’m hoping we get more depth and conflict from him in the next book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Violence