Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Murtagh by Christopher Paolini

27 reviews

nadine34b10's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, and Religious bigotry

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death of parent, and War

johannaplatt's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense 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? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this - the new POV was very refreshing and allowed the author to break away into some more morally grey moments with Murtagh and Thorn. The plot was engaging and kept moving throughout, and both main characters were forced to confront uncomfortable truths about themselves. Particularly loved Thorn's depiction and growth, and the evident depth of connection between them both. Would love to see more from these two!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Claustrophobia

excommunikate's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Violence

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse and Child death

defymavity's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book feels like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign in the best way possible

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Slavery

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death and Slavery

It spends too much time on thetorture parts. He's done this in previous books as well where the mental agony just drags on forever and it gets dull until it gets exciting again.

For the most part, a great book! I can tell Paolini has really improved his writing since Inheritance. But as with Brisingr and bits of Inheritance, some parts just don't need to be dragged out and we can skip to the good part.

kellovelie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Torture, and Violence

zoey_blk's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

The first half of the book were easily five stars, but toward the middle of the second half I felt like I was a bit stuck. Everything was taking a bit too long compared to the rest of the book. I may have cried the second certain cities were mentioned, because the nostalgia was hitting so damn hard. I adored Murtaghs POV. It was awesome to dive into his head and get to know Thorns and his relationship. Love Thorns sass!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Blood

Minor: Slavery

unmistakablyphoenix's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Murtagh is a character I have always had huge empathy for while reading the original 4 books in the Inheritance Cycle.
His actions have mostly been that of terrible circumstance to which he was born into, and while our original narrator, Eragon, had a harder time understanding Murtagh’s motivation and choices, or lack of, I could see beyond his comprehension to the reality of who Murtagh is- a lonely and stunted child trapped in an oppressive and abusive environment with a dictator taking special interest in his torture. I am so glad he got to continue his story in this installment and I especially loved the storyline.
There were some VERY difficult moments to read through and I felt real rage and profound sadness at Murtagh and Thorn’s plight and treatment, both past and present.
Paolini as always inspires with his writing, and I look forward to what he does next in the word of Alagaësia.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Slavery, and Torture

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

It took me many, many months to get through this, but my gosh it was a fantastic read. Murtagh has always been my favourite morally grey character and to have a whole 600+ page book dedicated to him and Thorn was everything I could have wanted (besides just being back in this world again). 

Getting to learn more about Murtagh's character arc and see where life took him and Thorn after all the events that transpired throughout the Inheritance Cycle  was fascinating. I felt as though we were really given a chance to get to know them as more than 'the vilains' and it was beautiful.

To see how their tortured past (especially with Galbatorix) triggers them still was heartbreaking and so realistic in a person. The empathy I felt was overwhelming at times - I just wanted to reach through the pages of the book and give them both a big hug. It warms my heart to know that they are least have comfort in each other.

The character growth from both of them in this novel was incredibly impressive, working through the torments of their memories and wanting and trying to get through the other side was so inspiring but what really drove that inspiration further was that it wasn't done overnight. With Thorn especially, we really got a deeper understanding of how his forced growth as a hatchling and cruel trials Galbatorix made him go through affected him still and how he struggled awfully with confined spaces because of that. It was was heartbreaking to see his frustration and fear, being stuck in the cruel moments of the past that brought the fear on.

A theme I really enjoyed in Murtagh was the significant role dreams played - I believe that was also a concept in TSIASOS, so I found it intriguing to see how differently Paolini explores that theme in his sci-fi and in his fantasy, respectively.

A little side note here, but I couldn't help but love the little notes of "mmm", or 'hrmph'.. It just felt so intrinsically human.

I loved getting to see more of the world and did get annoyed at Murtagh's endless curiosity always getting him into trouble, but the things we discovered about the goings on after what we hoped would be a long lasting peace was worrying and I'm so eager to find out what happens next!

What else is in store for Murtagh and Thorn?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

daniber's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders