Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

82 reviews

laurenbowman323'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Violence

ninariella's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Sexual harassment

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

beanaroni's review against another edition

This was not really picking up for me and I particularly wasn't enjoying

how frequently I had to read about Pyotr raping Anna.

I'm going to try one of Arden's other books later. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

The main character's father marries a teenage girl and repeatedly "goes to her bed" (aka, rapes her) for, and I quote, "marital duty." The last instance I read before DNFing describes her as literally weeping and he doesn't appear to have a reaction to it at all.

bridge_to_narnia's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

The storytelling was enchanting. The prose was beautifully written and every scene was given the same care. This fairytale is a wonderful story to get lost in on a cold day with a cup of tea. You need barely any imagination for the rich text to come to life in your mind. The story told is also worth while and the protagonist is love-able and even the step-mother antagonist is someone to sympathize with. As always, it seems men create their own problems, but this was a fresh telling of that type of plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Mental illness

Period typical misogyny/sexism/religious bigotry - these are central plot points to the story, but they aren’t traumatically enforced. The protagonist continuously defies convention the whole story and is never broken down, though there are threats of it.

sunniva174's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Death, Sexism, and Pregnancy

Minor: War

wishbea's review against another edition

I cannot force myself to read the rest of this boring story with one dimensional characters, poor pacing and jarring POV changes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

whooliio's review against another edition

dark inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Death

Moderate: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Rape, and Self harm

prunechips's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, and Rape

Minor: Gaslighting

itspronouncedtessa's review against another edition

2.75

I want to love this book so bad. It's beautifully written, the fairy tale is strong and the Slavic folklore is fascinating. It could have easily been a 5 star read.

But.

Do modern writers understand they're writing fiction? An untrue story, something they, in fact, made up? Even if it's "grounded in the realities of rural life at the time", it's still fiction.
The author admitted she'd fudged with the ages of actual historical figures to better fit the story, but when it comes to the fictional characters, she just has to, needs to, have a middle-aged man (who we are supposed to root for) marry and rape a child? Repeatedly? And describe him longing for her "tight body"? 

Why? It did not serve the plot and absolutely nothing would have been different if the ages had been changed. If there had been a smidgen of consent. 

"But it's historically accurate" 
Motherfucker, it's a fairy tale. There are demons and winter gods roaming your forest. But no, a grown woman being okay with sharing her new husband's bed, that's too unbelievable. 

I won't be reading the sequels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Sexual assault

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Rape