Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

197 reviews

pianokeys's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

k3nzi3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective 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

4.0

very entertaining but i would also not put this in the young adult book section like it was in my book store. (both jude and cardan's families are fucked up) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Suicide and Suicide attempt

katharina90's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

Not half bad for YA fairy fantasy. The main character was a little annoying, but I cared enough to keep reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity

noellegrace8's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It took me about 25% of the way through to start truly enjoying this book. Because it takes the path of a slow reveal of situations and motivations, the beginning groundwork can be almost frustrating because you don't know why some people are acting the way that they are. Also, for a book with so much death and otherwise adult themes, the characters and the writing style both are a bit juvenile at times. I struggled at first with the incongruency of a lack of contractions in dialogue mixed with colloquialisms like "that sucks," but I eventually got used to it and do recognize that it makes sense given the setting. I also really hate first person present tense because it feels overdramatic and impractical, and this book uses it throughout.

That being said, I really like the main characters. Some of the side characters are a bit flat, but Jude, Cardan, Maddoc, Vivvie, Dain, Taryn, Oriana... none of them are "good" or "bad." They just are. They make decisions, they have instincts and natures that make those decisions difficult. I love the complexity! I also think this book set up a series (trilogy) well, so I'm hoping to like the next two even more! The worldbulding is awesome. Holly Black has created a very interesting mix of "fae" and "mortal," complete with rich history and quirks and physical descriptions.

I don't factor audiobook reader into my overal star rating, but I give Caitlyn Kelly 3.5/5⭐️. Honestly, I think she was part of the reason I struggled to get into this book, but there's no telling for certain. She oftentimes doesn't seem to read with the same cadence that the words on the page suggest. She also has a cheesy tone when voicing male characters and over-acts when it comes to emotional (and even sometimes non-emotional!) scenes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Abortion, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Incest, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Excrement, Grief, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and War

aralalala's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

As a romcom girly, I picked this up because of swoony bookstagram reels, only to be met first with a whole lot of blood, bullying, political conflict, violence, and complicated family relations before the very little romance around the last quarter of the book.

Nonetheless, I devoured this in one sitting.

It’s a complicated and complex tale, and the characters, even more so. They’re all questionable, but it was a thrilling ride despite it not being romance-heavy (again, as a romcom girly). 

It’s not lighthearted at all and it’s not for  days when you’re just looking to turn off your brain. It has really dark themes and intense scenes, but overall, it’s not as emotionally heavy as others that share similar themes (at least, I don’t feel that way).

The writing is so well done from a technical standpoint. It wasn’t dragging and you had the necessary details you need when you needed it. There were no plot points that did not make sense, and if there were plot-holes, I didn’t notice.

It was very easy to get sucked into its universe, and the plot was compelling enough to keep me turning the page.

Jude is a very strong and lovable character. As complicated as she is, it was somehow very easy to relate with her complexity. It was an exciting ride and I look forward to how the rest of the story unfolds in the series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Grief

Minor: Cursing, Infidelity, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and War

abrielleemory's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was a bit of a letdown after all of the hype on IG and TikTok. I listened to this on Spotify, so please don’t judge me for how I spell the names of characters.

I thought Jude was insufferable. She did the classic. I’m a strong, independent woman thing while also being too scared to stand up for herself half the time her obsession with her twin sister was so weird to me and that twist at the end made me very proud of Taryn. Vivienne was SO ANNOYING like she really tried to be the disinterested, cool older sister but was so removed that she had no character development. 

I know this is framed as an enemies to friends situation, but I wish they would’ve stayed enemies the weird love thing just really didn’t click for me. 

The authors overuse of descriptive language was really distracting. I understand she was trying to describe the world or do some world-building, but it kind of fell flat for me and was really over exaggerated.

I thought her becoming the spy was cool and I liked the other spy characters, but she just really annoyed me as a female main character. 

I don’t think I’ll be reading the next books and I’m kind of glad that I listened to this as a free audiobook. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

lyr1cal's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

shadowsportrait's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Emotional abuse

elisabethstre's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.0

junge dieses buch war not at all what i expected, but I LOVED IT

THE DARK MYSTERIOUS FANTASY? THE POLITICS??? i ate that shit up!! alterrrr die intrigen und plotttwists, das war alles SO GEIL, ich habe so viel nicht kommen sehen!!!! war geschockt

die ganze welt war so magisch und brutal; ich war so froh, nicht von einer heilen schönen feenwelt zu lesen, sondern von dieser abgefuckten grausamkeit und diesen komischen gestalten?? geil 

jude war ganz anders, als ich sie mir vorgestellt hab! SHE WAS AN ICONIC, MORALLY GREY ANTIHERO and i love that for her!!!

ihr charakter war manchmal leider nicht soo richtig greifbar; ich hab es aber so gedeutet, dass sie die meiste zeit selbst noch nicht richtig wusste, was sie will und sich noch sucht; wenn das in den folgeteilen besser ist, hab ich nichts gesagt. i love her already!!

wirklich keine person in diesem buch ist ein guter „mensch“, alle waren irgendwie SO BÖSE und haben irgendwelche geheimen schemes gehabt, i ate that uppppp omg. jude auch nur bedingt sympathisch (bin mir nicht so sicher, ob ich sie mag?), but i was rooting for her, she was a queen and she was the moment!!!

das buch war fr 80% fantasy politics, es erinnerte mich stark an game of thrones, aber das hats auch so geil gemacht. it kept me guessing, wer der wahre feind ist und ich LIEBE DAS!! brauche sofort den zweiten teil

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

dlsmk's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail