Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

26 reviews

half_sugar's review against another edition

Holy Guacamole! It is just so bad! Definitely a 'pick me girl' story. I could tell this was on the back of Twilight. Vom. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Stalking

amy_reading_23's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

This book is complicated. Not as in it hard to follow (although I had watched the TV show beforehand so that gave me an advantage) but that I'm not sure what to make of it. There were some bits I really enjoyed. And some bits that made me uncomfortable. I don't like how Matthew treats Diana, I think their relationship is pretty toxic tbh and a bit misogynistic in times. They also excuse too much of his behaviour as "ifs because he's a vampire". But the plot is interesting and I still want to read the next two sometime, I'm just not necessarily in a rush. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Medical content

Moderate: Misogyny, Gore, Domestic abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Kidnapping

Minor: Stalking and Suicidal thoughts

joey_paige's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Medical content, Death, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent

Minor: Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Stalking, Grief, and Misogyny

flyintothestorm's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Spoiler

Mira que soy fan de los finales abiertos, pero dejar una historia a la mitad y que quede bien es más difícil que pase y no es el caso para mí.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Gore, and Torture

Moderate: Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Stalking

saroreen's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-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? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Violence

Moderate: Stalking, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Fire/Fire injury, and Racism

discogecko's review against another edition

Couldn't get past the evolution and genetics explanations... They're not accurate. Dislike the protagonist.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Stalking, Blood, and Death of parent

ruthee's review against another edition

slow-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? It's complicated

2.0

Unlike others, I didn’t actually mine the pace or world-building…but the abusive relationship (red flag, after red flag, after red flag) framed as ‘that’s just the way vampires are, and my love is enough’ was so bad it just kept taking me out of the story. 

It’s not often (if ever) that I completely prefer a tv or film adaptation to the original material, but in this case, my love of the tv series was what got me through this. 

In audiobook, the narrator was good, except when it came to any accent that wasn’t their own. The English/Scottish/Australian ones ranged between literally lol to offensive…so strange for a professionally produced book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Death, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism

karly_ackley's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death

Moderate: Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and War

jaynovara's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Blood, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Confinement

Minor: Kidnapping, Medical content, and Pregnancy

piperclover's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

2.5

I'm so torn on this. On one hand I love the mystery around the manuscript, the magic system, the convent, and all of that stuff. On the other hand I despise Matthew as a love interest. He could be the villain, he could be the best friend, he could just be a random vampire that they dragged in to all this, but I cannot stand him as a love interest.  His character has some flashes of being interesting but by-and-large hes just a controlling, obnoxious Edward Cullen era vampire love interest. 

And that's my biggest gripe with this book that it feels like a mix of National Treasure and the bad parts of Twilight.  You can clearly see that this was written post twilight boom. I just hate this stupid relationship so much but I'm so interested in the actual plot that I might get sucked in and try the next book. 

 It was a bit long and a bit slow so it definitely could have cut about a 100 pages out but I did really enjoy the fact that even though it's all about magic, they did address the legalities of the legalities of their plan which was a fun thing to add. And also it raised a very good question about whether or not vampires can tell when somebody is menstruating and if they like it or not. 

I initially gave this a 3 but its actually a 2.5. I cant think about it without thinking about how much I hated the "romance" so much it makes me mad. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Torture

Moderate: Stalking

Harassment