Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Witches of Vardø by Anya Bergman

25 reviews

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

frankieclc's review against another edition

tragically slow, tried desperately to care about any of the characters but alas 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Violence

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.

kiwialexa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

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

britters68's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective sad tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Domestic abuse and Rape

batbaby's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad fast-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

5.0

It is such a beautiful book and one I’ll carry with me, there are such sad and graphic scenes but so thoughtfully and well written

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual content

Set during witch trials so comes with the upset and mistreatment of women associated with these times, fairly scary upsetting sexual assault of a minor page number in spoiler

page 260-264, it is mentioned maybe twice after that but not in graphic detail

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

ehs1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

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