Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Witches of Vardø by Anya Bergman

15 reviews

gealghaireach's review against another edition

dark informative sad slow-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

bellsdixon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

victoria_mh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

There is a lot of very heavy stuff in this book;

I was expecting torture of 'witches' and that itself was hard to read, but then there's a full description of the teenage protagonist getting raped.

hannahrhian's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

ecster's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

An emotional rollercoaster of a book if there ever was one, a great feminist perspective of witch trials in 17th century Norway.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Suicide

scrumblebooks's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

This is a brutal, dark, emotional read based, in part, on real people and events. A harrowing tale of life for women in 17th century Norway and how any misdeed or slip of the tongue could land you in serious peril. Difficult to read at times, though definitely worthwhile and the addition of occasional small folk tales and myths as well as hints of magical realism were welcome. I would certainly recommend this insightful book, although I would line up something decidedly lighter and altogether fluffier to read next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Infertility, Blood, and Pregnancy

ninamanon's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.25

A harrowing feminist tale about sisterhood, power, and justice. I loved Ingeborg and Maren instantly; they drew me into the story. I had a more difficult time getting through Fru Anna’s chapters, as she reads as haughty and annoyingly delusional, a sort of pick me girl. She irritated me greatly in the beginning, but the strength of the book was that the further you got into her story, the more you understood how she became the way she was, and in the end I couldn’t fault her and merely felt sorry for her, as I did for every other woman in the book. As for the ending,

I loved it: I loved how the conflict was resolved, how it ended with a shimmer of hope, how every single girl and woman was liberated in one way or another. I especially loved Maren and Elisa’s future: it is so beautiful to find a queer historical story that doesn’t end in misery. I will think of them often.

The prose was beautiful; I did have to get used to the first person narrative, and I struggled a bit at around the 30% mark, as Anna was boring me a bit with her tedious stories of her past lover, but as I said, I now understand their purpose. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

vbzshenanigans's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Classism

d0nt_be_so_rude's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

3.5

This story is based on true facts which made it even more impactful. For me, I could think of current events that seemed similair like nothing has changed since the witchs hunts. At the same time the way Ingeborg and Anna think about themselves, witches and the devil really pulled me into the past.
There is one thing that made me almost dnf this book. Ingeborg and Anna tell their story from different perspectives. One from first person and the other from third person. Every chapter I had to take a moment before I could read further because I could not really get into the story this way. After a while, about half way through, I got used to it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Torture

bookchatwithbeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy