Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Sisters Grimm by Menna van Praag

7 reviews

milooo's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

3.75

this was almost 4 stars, just because there are some things that i didn’t love but overall, this is a great book. i absolutely loved the vibes (im a sucker for elemental themed magic). it really reminded me of The Hazel Wood (which i love love love). i went into this read completely blind, so it took me a while to get a hold of what the themes and commentary was about, but once i was up to speed, i really enjoyed this exploration or morality and how different standards are applied to women. the diversity of experiences and circumstances was also a really important angle to explore for this theme, and i think that the book handles this really well. i would recommend checking the content warnings for this because i was caught off guard several times. however, let it be know that i think these difficult topics were addressed with sufficient grace and were not at all gratuitous or trivialised. all the romances were tinged with a weird sense of being ‘not quite right’, which makes sense eventually, but still. the overarching theme of sisterhood would be so well done, if only they weren’t constantly talking about their father or their boyfriends. this is actually something that bothered me a bit during the whole book, that there are just. so. many. men. i know it makes sense plot-wise, but i loved the moments where we got glimpses of each sister’s relationship with each of their mother and how each of them dealt with the consequences of being a woman in Wilhelm Grimm’s world. i wish we got a bigger focus on that. the magic system was nice and vague (just how i like them), but the overall worldbuilding wasn’t developed in a satisfactory way. anyway, to summarise: really good read, just didn’t quite hit like i wanted it to

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Sexual assault

Moderate: Racism and Abandonment

Minor: Rape

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

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

kindra_demi's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.0

This was an alright story and I did like the premise of the story, the way each sister represented a different elemental aspects in the story, and the writing (for the most part) is really good. You are slowly introduced to the world and atmosphere. You are slowly given each piece of the story for the characters to build the puzzle. But there are some aspects I really struggled with.

One of the biggest things I struggled with was how many different perspectives there were (and that may be because I chose to listen to the book as an audiobook). Between having to remember what part of the timeline I was in + who's perspective I was in, I found myself several times needing to pause and take a moment.

This is not the story for someone who wants action packed/fast paced stories. It was definitely all just a build up to one moment with not a lot of little moments. A lot of the story was just world building, and it wasn't necessarily bad, but it did loose my attention a few times (which also contributed to me being lost in the storyline). And the action towards the end of the book is wrapped up quickly in a bow. Like yes there is sorrow and pain, but it feels like we spent all of the book building up to the ultimate ending, for it to just feel like it happened and that's that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, and Abandonment

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

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