Reviews tagging 'Lesbophobia'

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

30 reviews

sipnayan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Grief, Torture, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Homophobia, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Lesbophobia, and Outing

Moderate: Vomit, Cursing, and Trafficking

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Animal death, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Slavery, Classism, Emotional abuse, Murder, Violence, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Sexism, and Misogyny

Moderate: Outing, Medical content, Sexual content, Grief, War, Death of parent, Bullying, Colonisation, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Vomit

galexy_brain's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful 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? Yes

3.25

The plot was alright but gahdamn can Ngan write a romance

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, Classism, Medical trauma, Animal death, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Infertility, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Kidnapping, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Slavery, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, War, Bullying, Gore, Outing, Sexual content, and Trafficking

baby_jewels's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Misogyny and Lesbophobia

poppywarphan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-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

3.0

Characters: 5/10
Enjoyment: 6.5/10
Plot: 6/10
Worldbuilding: 5/10
Writing: 8/10

This might as well have been a standalone. But it's not because of that extra page at the end. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm invested enough to read any further installments.

The idea was good, the execution not so much. The worldbuilding wasn't really explored. The plot and writing were simplistic. That's not a bad thing, but on one hand it read as a book for younger teens, on the other hand though it discussed mature themes. There's rape. It's not graphic, but there nonetheless. If there's anything that triggers me in books, its sexual assault.  The girls are taken as mistresses and must have sex with the king against their will. Yes, they don't object, but it's either that or be killed.

The characters were underdeveloped. The king as a villain was just stupid. He's evil. OK, and? That's it? The paper girls were pretty indistinguishable. Aside from Aoki and Blue whose personality was being a bitch. The relationship between Lei and Wren didn't really have any foundation. It was pretty much just lusting and attraction.

Now, what I did like was what was done with Aoki's character. Not that I like what happened to her, but the book highlights how easy it is to fall victim to an abusive man. Aoki is the youngest out of the paper girls and naive. The king makes her feel special, so she starts having feelings for him. I like how it pointed out (although in a pretty juvenile way) that such a relationship is, in fact, not good (side-eyeing all the romance books that romanticize toxic relationships). Aoki is probably the most nuanced compared to the other two-dimensional characters.

Overall Girls of paper and fire wasn't a terrible book, just underwhelming. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Violence, Child abuse, Rape, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Confinement, Sexual violence, and Body horror

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Racism, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Classism, Bullying, Death, and Genocide

mirroaoror's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Torture, Rape, and Trafficking

Minor: War

kristakp's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This book didn't draw me in as much as I thought it would, and I personally didn't find the plot to be all that interesting. The main romance didn't feel earned to me, I didn't get the full sense of yearning because I didn't feel like the characters were fleshed out enough for me to feel the yearning. (I did have a conversation with a friend about whether my feelings were the result of my lack of experience with sapphic books or if it truly is these characters, and I hadn't come to a conclusion about it.) 

I understand why the author went there, but it was still a surprise

Spoiler

that the king brutally raped Lei after Lei initially ran away. I was unsure whether the author would fully take it there, and I'm not sure how I feel about the decision made. I think it was definitely the harder, more adult decision.

 

I knew from about 40% through the book that I probably wouldn't be continuing on with the series afterwards. The world didn't lure me in although the writing was good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Lesbophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, and Slavery

peppermintlegs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

3.5

I was surprised at the amount of sexual violence in this YA book. the worldbuilding was structured on an interesting concept that didn’t seem fully executed? I felt the main character acted rashly over and over again and seemed never to learn from her mistakes. I also felt that Lei could have perhaps paid any more attention to her surroundings. the time skips, handwave-y “I don’t pay attention in class,” and clunky lord dumps to the main character and, by extension, the reader, could have been more smoothly incorporated earlier in the story for a sleeker final act: I don’t want to hear “they’re from X clan” in the last six pages of the book. this was easily digestible and descriptively written; I just wish it had been a little tighter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Outing and Lesbophobia

karapillar's review

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexism, Rape, Child abuse, Body shaming, Blood, Racism, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Murder, Torture, Stalking, Slavery, Lesbophobia, Infidelity, Homophobia, Sexual content, Grief, Physical abuse, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, and Gaslighting

gaymushrooms's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery

Moderate: Lesbophobia, War, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury