Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Sistersong

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

8 reviews

lorraine19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

Despite the plot moving slow at first, the multiple layers of story keeps it interesting. There's the Christian church dominating a pagan community, war with Saxons looming, and the personal stories with each of the siblings. I found the parallels between these elements fascinating.

If you know The Twa Sisters ballad, most of the plot likely won't be a surprise for you. If you are like me and went in blind, you'll probably find certain points predictable and others completely shocking. Character development is there - some for better and some for worst. The most moving - and arguably he main character of this multiple POV story - to me is the middle child Keyne. Their development and story of self discovery and empowerment is absolutely beautiful.

As someone that is a fan of multiple POV books, I felt like it was almost unnecessary here. However, I do feel like it did result in some points being more effective. I'm left with conflicted feelings about the ending (specifically regarding Riva) but I think that's up to the individual reader.

Overall, interesting read - especially if you are into paganism, European history, or magic.

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gemstonejasper's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

Twa Sisters murder ballad retelling. Tragic with lots of character development. Themes of identity, magic, power, and being true to yourself.

Trans masc rep. Gender fluid rep.

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picaresquedreamer's review against another edition

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Boring, most characters were kinda irritating

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wishbea's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

2.5

Keyne is the most compelling character in the book and the actual plot of the Twa Sisters seemed very tagged on, the plot reveals, particulary

Tristan being a secret Saxon leader

was very obvious to me so I found how late that plot reveal was in the story irritating as it made a lot of the characters appear dumb.

The magic system was highly derivative other than the connection to the land aspect, characters like Gwen and Mori were highly enjoyable. The book itself was fine to read, but I wish it had either entirely focused on Keyne or on both Riva and Sinne as I felt like both storylines suffered from having to share time with the other. For me this resulted in Keyne's plot being a more interesting read and feeling very annoyed at the way Sinne and Riva's plot merged for the climax of the book.

I also despised the way Riva's story ended

I cannot stand when characters avoid facing justice, Riva chose not to save her sister and Sinne died because of it and although her own people hate her she gets to choose to go the enemy kingdom to have children and be the lady of a far bigger kingdom. I suppose you could argue that never seeing her own kingdom again, giving up her magic and never seeing Keyne again is punishment enough but I think she deserved worse.

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