Reviews tagging 'Grief'

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

7 reviews

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

bekahzabel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

4.5/5 🌟 I read this series in middle school and circled back to it in effort to re-explore some favorites as an adult. I’m so happy I started with this one, it felt like slipping back into a cozy familiar dark bedtime story. Libba Bray’s writing style is suitable for both YA and adults in this series. 

I noticed so much more allusion, foreshadowing, and hidden gems this second time around.

If you like:
Coming of Age Witches
Discovering & Developing Power
Found Family
Sisterhood
Dark Academia
Secrets & Plot Twists 

then this trilogy will hit the spot for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Self harm, Grief, and Murder

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

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