Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

10 reviews

k_winchester's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

It was aight... 

Things I liked: 
-Gemma was so snarky. She was consistently pretty mean in the early part of the book, which was interesting to me as she felt like an atypical 'heroine'. As well, the group of friends she ultimately gathered was rather atypical to me, too, which I really liked - and she didn't even like any of them for a while, which was amusing. 

-There was something about Gemma that even though she was pretty unlikable for a while, I was drawn in by her nonetheless. It was satisfying to her change enough to be more vulnerable and strong instead of just stubborn, and retaining her snark. 

-I liked that I could not tell where the story was going and a few of those bombshells in the ending threw me for a loop. 

-There was a lot of seriously gorgeous writing.

-the scene where the girls are all utterly crushed by the weight of thier position/status in the world (before taking magic into thier own hands) was SO good - honestly probably the one time in the book that really hit my emotions. Just sooo good. 👌

Things I didn't like so much:

-her thing with Kartik. I really, really wanted to be into it - and it initially felt like he was going to be a big character, but lowkey he ended up so periphery that he felt borderline pointless. It felt like the only times he really interacted with her was to refuse to answer any questions/clarify literally anything about him, his role, etc. and I feel like I know about as much if him at the end of the entire book as I did in the beginning. They had some good tension moments, but thier interactions felt so few and far between that thier interactions in the last 1/4 of the story or so felt very out of place. 

-Probably a me thing, but it felt like the majority of this is Gemma having no idea what was happening AND purposefully ignoring it, to the degree that it felt like the whole story was really waiting to get to like the 80% mark before Stuff really started Happening in any meaningful way. I really didn't feel very invested or even super interested until around the 3/4 mark (curious enough to read on, but not Into It, and I wanted to feel Into it).

-just other little things here or there either feel unfinished/unresolved (which, i do realize this is the first in a series so that's probably on purpose to some extent but it's not very satisfying) or underdone or kinda pointless in the end.

- the treatment of Ann overall. It worked for snarky/mean Gemma to be so in the beginning, but it felt like later it changed from outright mean to no comment at all, rather than Gemma realizing/appreciating good qualities in Ann (outside of the realms with magic changing/"helping" Ann). And Pip, it felt like she really only called out her good qualities after she was 'dead' (maybe one other time). It just didn't sit right that these girls became so close, supposedly, and yet... As much as I did overall enjoy Gemma, this aspect felt very lacking to me, especially as she changed over the course of the story.

Tl;dr - Honestly overall, it really was alright enough, so it's a solid 3.25 for me. I did enjoy Gemma, and it was a cool story, but it ultimately wasn't enough of my cup of tea/I don't feel invested enough to feel compelled to read more in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Death of parent

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Racism, Self harm, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Misogyny, Sexism, and Fire/Fire injury

shartcuterie90210's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content

sassyykassie's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, and Death

itsreirei's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-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? Yes

4.5

This book feels like The Craft set in the Victorian era. I see why some may dislike it but I personally quite enjoyed reading it. Curious to see where the story goes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Drug abuse, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

haleymaxinee's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Self harm, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Racism, Sexism, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Classism

emilylovesgoodbooks's review

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Self harm

zombiezami's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

I first read this book when I was a teenager, and I rated it 5 stars at that time. I value the book for what it gave to me at the time, feeling seen for having experiences like wondering who I truly am and wondering who would ever understand me. Plus, there's fulfillment of the teenage girl urge to have a magical world where you're all powerful for good measure. This book is, in a lot of ways, an aged up spiritual successor to The Secret Garden. 

Reading this as an adult, there are parts that I'm not so enamored with, hence the lower rating. The friendship between the main characters strikes me as much more toxic than it did when I was a teenager, especially since Pippa and Felicity never apologize for tormenting Ann. I also find it hard to root for Kartik to be with Gemma, since Gemma keeps implying threats that she will get him arrested, which, at that time period, would basically be a death threat. That being said, I still really like Ms. Moore as a character. 

I look forward to my re-read of the rest of the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Racism, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Neglect, Antiziganism, Seizures

atrkula's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Bullying, Death, Death of parent, and Cultural appropriation

celery's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism

ravensandlace's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Find this review and others like it at https://aravenclawlibraryx.wordpress.com

This is a pre goodreads/storygraph era book. I read this book when I was in high school. Back then, I devoured books like it was my job. I was in my school library just about every other day to get books. I think the librarian had to order more books just so I had something to read. Oh, those were the days. Now I’m lucky if I can finish a book in a week. Anyway, I remember this book being so cool and the concept of travelling to a different world where you could have everything you ever wanted was the epitome of awesome. So I thought I would reread this book and see if I still loved it. It had such fond feelings for me.

Spoiler alert: I did not love the book like I did when I was in high school. I think as I have gotten older, my taste in books have changed. One of my biggest problems was Gemma, the MC. My god, she was a giant brat. While I understand that this book takes place in the late 1800s and times were different, Gemma could still be a bit more nicer. She was just a brat. She treated her family like crap. She treated her friends like crap. She was selfish and did things only for herself. Felicity and Pippa were honestly no better. They were mean to each other and to others. They acted like they were better than everyone. It really put me off from enjoying the book at all. Anne was the only decent character but she was so two dimensional. She was bullied by everyone and nobody did anything about it. 

The whole book just seemed to be about how Gemma is mourning her mom and being a brat. The cool magic concept was overshadowed by Gemma and her poor decisions. I understand that she was in shock losing her mom in such a tragic way but there were ways to grieve and not constantly put yourself at risk. I am really unsure if I’m going to continue with the trilogy because I can’t remember if Gemma gets any better. Shame because this had the promise to be really good. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Grief, and Religious bigotry