Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Sisters Grimm by Menna van Praag

11 reviews

the_incredible_writing_snail's review against another edition

emotional 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

2.5

With 4+ POVs, and ridiculously short chapters, this book is hard to really get into.  The world building is borderline non-existent, and although the book attempts to delve in to many serious themes and discussions (feminism, dementia in a loved one, sexual assault, and familial expectations to name a few), it accomplishes very little, ultimately feeling like it was written by a middle-schooler in terms of depth and comprehension of these issues.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dementia

Minor: Child abuse and Sexual assault

sebnia_05's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Incest, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and War

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Racism

hitheremynameislisa's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Child abuse

cardans_wine's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Alcohol

beldaran1224's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

There were so many things wrong with this book. Let's start with something objective: there are five main POVs in the story, and they swap approximately every half page to page and a half. They are all labelled...but the labels were sometimes wrong, or the POV of the passage would literally shift from one sentence to the next. It was very frustrating.

The plot is very slow, and I kept hoping for a good payoff, but frankly felt it wasn't worth it.

The diversity was shallow, especially in regards to Bea. With Liyana, there is at least one running theme that felt more than a little racist, especially because it was rooted in the family's immigration story. The book explicitly positions itself as feminist, but has nothing of interest to say about feminism, womanhood, or any related topic. Several of our characters experience economic hardship, but any opportunity to say interesting things about them is left by the wayside.

Folklore is used throughout, but in a kind of ham-fisted way. Three of the four girls clearly fit folklore archetypes or are meant to. One is left out for no apparent reason. The folklore didn't particularly enhance the story.

There are quite a number of horrible things that happen to these girls, and it really seems to just be checking tragedies off a list without delving into them or exploring them or how they shape the character of the girls. Check the trigger warnings, because there are a LOT of triggering things. It's meant to be a character driven book, but between the many POVs and the hopping around in time, its hard to get invested in any of them. Both the past sections and the present frequently lacked anything of real interest.

What does this book do well? The ending was interesting. Not amazing, but solid. It doesn't really deliver on any of the elements the blurb sells. All in all, if you're looking for a book that integrates folklore, has themes of anger, feminism, sisterhood, etc., read the Once & Future Witches instead.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, and Suicide attempt

readingelli's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Starts off very slow, but pace picks up around 1/3 of the way through. Cleverly split between present and past POV. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

cutlet's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

I was intrigued by the premise, but I felt like I had to push through a lot of stuff. When it ended, it felt like the 'why' was never explained, a few random additions were made but never elaborated on, and there was no real resolution, the story just sort of dropped off and stopped. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Abandonment

Moderate: Child abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Incest

georgeeporge's review against another edition

emotional inspiring fast-paced

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

1.0

An unfortunate miss for me. I love a bit of magical realism, but its of so poorly executed. 

Its a story of daughters, of girls becoming women, discovering their true powers and where their morales really lie when faced with a terrible choice. Pick the side of evil and live, pick the side of good and die. 

The formatting was off, with five main protagonists and short chapters that insisted in covering all their stories, some in first person and others in third person, it made it horribly jumpy and repetitive. 

I also don't understand why the author was obsessed with adultifying these 17 years old?! How is one at uni sleeping with a professor, two should've been in care with one was running a cafe living with her Gran who had alzheimer's and another without any living legal guardian at all. Only one had any form of a realistic living situation at all! 

It is a hard no from me.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

deesquared's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

A spin on the Grimm fairy tales, four girls have to make a decision on their eighteenth birthday on choosing between darkness or death. 

It's a book that had a lot of potential but didn't lead anywhere.

I did not like that the characters were all 17, but had the lives of people at least in their 20s.

I'm talking sole guardian of a small child, university student having an affair with professor or the girl selling her grandmother's cafe after effectively being manipulated by an adult man!

 

It could have easily been about people in their 20s, the turning point could have been them turning 21, it didn't have to be 18 to fit with fairytale lore if these themes were going to be used! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Dementia, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment

Minor: Eating disorder and Incest

jacquelynjoan's review against another edition

adventurous fast-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

It's not it's fault I didn't love it. It's more YA than I prefer and more conflict than I prefer. Not as witchy as I like and too much time with the girls apart. But definitely all about the power of girls friendships, imperfect parents.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, and Death of parent