Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Pénélope, Reine d'Ithaque by Claire North

2 reviews

pedanther's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

sauvageloup's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

hard to rate this one since I read it rather piecemeal and I cant hold a coherent sense of it in my head

pros:
- the characters all have distinct personalities and dialogue, which is written well. Penelope is focused, hera is snippy, telemachus is foolish, etc. but they're all complex too. there were some nice additions to the canon, kenamon and teodora (or I didnt remember them anyway), and it was nice having some decent characters.
- there is dry humor, especially in here's perspective 
- I like the concept on focusing on outwardly quieter female power, and looking at hera and penelope, and the other women from a different angle than the mythology does.

cons:
- it did feel too slow a lot of the time, with a lot of meandering and introspection. 
- it was frustrating seeing telemachus ignore his mother repeatedly, and aspects of the myths play out, but that's not a book criticism, just that inevitable tragedy isnt rly my genre.

so overall, I appreciated the writing quality and definitely enjoyed meeting Claire North and hearing her discuss her work, but this wasnt quite my type of book, a bit too slow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Xenophobia