Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor

11 reviews

emily_mh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

3.25

I really liked the writing style of this one. It was descriptive and poetic without being too over-the-top and ridiculous. For that reason alone I’d be interested in checking out more books by this author. This particular story ended up falling a bit flat, though. 

The plot started off super strong but kind of waned at the halfway point. Everything ended up feeling half-baked or unrealistic. I was left confused about the motives of those involved, and the resolution was downright unbelievable. 

The world-building was so plain. There was nothing compelling or captivating about it. 

Eliza’s character development was rushed, so that it felt unnatural. She was so firmly set in her ways that I didn’t believe her change in character could have happened within a few days. I will say that Anna and Nathaniel’s development WAS well done, however. In both cases it felt like a long time coming and the events of the plot provided that catalyst for change, so the development felt earned. 

Even though the quality of this book wasn’t great, I did actually enjoy reading it! And as I said, the writing style was fab. So this author is definitely not a write-off for me! 

Rep: sapphic MC, lesbian (word not used even though there were opportunities to use it, and words like aromantic and asexual exist) MC, aroace MC

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Grief, Medical content, Ableism, Blood, Child death, Death, Murder, Violence, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, Gun violence, Classism, and Pregnancy

Moderate: imprisonment, loss of a loved one, fainting Minor: sick loved one, blackmail, theft, capital punishment, child birth

punkrobots's review

adventurous fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Classism, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Emotional abuse

kait_sixcrowsbooks's review

I think a good portion of it was me just taking so long with it (I started it?? Back in December???), but the story just seemed…choppy. And how the three MC’s suddenly all got together seemed super abrupt to me, and the story as a whole just did not flow well for me. Maybe I’ll try it again later, but for now, it’s going on my “donate to little library” pile 🤷🏻

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Blood, and Emotional abuse

animaepanda's review

adventurous emotional

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.75

I love the aroace and sapphic rep so much! :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Blood, and Colonisation

Moderate: Grief and Terminal illness

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia and Lesbophobia

The ace/arophobia is internalized ace/arophobia.

tinysierra's review

adventurous emotional 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

3.75

Instalove, space related, wlw, Ace and aro rep… count me in!

This book lacked intensity and build up. Everything felt too convent and happened too easily, even when things went wrong it still worked out somehow.

Rowan’s

death was supposed to be this heartbreaking turning point but it lack conviction.
Also they were able to subdue 

the Commissioner and the Queen

in like… a matter of minutes? I know it was 3 vs 1 but it happened way too easily. And like they both barley even fought back.

 

Eliza was my favorite character. I love sneaky and strong female characters.

The discussion about aro and ace identity and labels… brb crying /pos

-Discussions about ableism and disability

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy

dari's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent

mandaoof's review

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

The premise of the book was really appealing, and it was a fun read. But the characters while going through development, somehow I never gained an emotional connection to them. Multiple deaths in the book occurred and yet I never was sad over it. I think part of it was the multiple POV's- the author was busy building up a world and establishing characters while developing them. Things also moved pretty damn fast- the development and the plot. Like, if I I kept track of things right, things seem to have happened over a two week period or something? Without going into spoilers, that is a short time period for the characters to have dealt with what they did and come to healthy conclusions, overriding years of thinking.

However- the aroace scene? This aroace fucking loved it. Took a picture of it to send to some friends who are ace because I was just going 'yessss!!!!'. I just found it very ironic that the romance plot made me go 'ew' because of my small romance repulsion lmao. So if you are aromantic and reading this to see if you want to read it, don't if you experience romance repulsion to a decent degree. To be fair, it is a YA novel. I knew what I was risking.

Overall, it is a good read. I am going to be passing the book on to a friend whose reading tastes fits more so with this genre. I would also buy this book for any young teens in my life to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy

elwirax's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.5

3.5/5

The blend of fantasy and Sc-fi in "Tarnished Are the Stars" was done really well and I adored the overall concept and atmosphere.I loved the sapphic romance (albeit the betrayal annoyed me) but what stole my heart was the Aro-Ace representation. I rarely see good Aro-Ace portrayals in media so it was great seeing a character I could relate to (Nathaniel was an absolute sweetheart). 

However, the story started off quite strongly but was watered down as it progressed. Although there was definitely some good world building, it lacked a wee bit and left me with many questions surrounding the "adjacent Earth" and the workings of the TICCERS. There also didn't seem to be a lot of stakes, the characters trusted eachother too quickly and parts were a bit too convenient. 

It's evident this is a debut with the many inconsistencies, yet, as a whole it was thoroughly enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death and Blood

Minor: Medical content

meganlilyflower's review

3.5

I wanted to like this book more than I did but I did like the book. 

The Good:

• Ace/aro rep: especially in moments of that characters POV when we are observing the romantic couple in the story. 
• The queer couple are not the focus of the story but it doesn’t feel like instalove either. They aren’t just suddenly a couple, instead we get them becoming friends who trust each other while we the reader know that they have an observable connection and are attracted to each other. I love that one is clearly gay and one seems to be bi!
• The sci-fi elements: the clock tech especially was super cool to me. Some steampunk aesthetic without some of the steampunk tropes and without going all in on the style. 

The Meh & the Missed:

• I felt there was a lot of missed opportunity for those clock hearts to be the heart of the story. It felt like we forgot about the clock heart component and Nathaniel’s “never having maintenance” when that could’ve been used 
• The climax felt rushed to me. Maybe it was because my last read was adult and almost 500 pages but I felt this could’ve been longer and given me more mundane interactions within the manor that added world building and gave us more tender moments with our queer couple
• The queer couple isn’t the center of the story and I wish they’d come into focus more often. It just was happening in the background (literally as we got the thought in the back of characters minds) The set up had some enemies to lovers potential and I would’ve liked the see that pushed harder and followed through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Ableism and Medical content

mxfahrenheit's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Blood and Medical content