Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor

6 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

mxbluet18's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted sad 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? No

5.0

Trigger warnings for Tarnished are the Stars include: medical content, childbirth and pregnancy, child death, grief, death, physical violence, parental abuse, physical abuse, ableism and classism.
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I initially picked this up because I knew it has an asexual character in it, but it quickly became that I was invested in the characters (some more than others though) and I just had to finish it to find out where the story was going.
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I read Fire Becomes Her last year and found myself loving the writing style and characters in that one, and had had Tarnished on my TBR for a while so I made it a priority when I managed to get hold of it. I've also used the book to talk about an important point in an essay I'm working on about asexuality in the written media.
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For me, having asexual representation, and aromantic asexual representation is something I love to see in the books I read, especially if the ideas or the feelings portrayed are a depiction I can relate to or sympathise with. Suffice it to say, I loved the representation in the book, I loved the characters (or those I was supposed to love anyway), I loved the character arcs, and the plot was rich and delicate.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Ableism, Classism, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Grief

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

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

reina's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This book has loveable characters. It started a bit blandly, but it picks up. I really enjoyed the f/f romance more than I expected to. I had no expectations for Eliza, and she wound up being my favorite. My biggest criticism is in the trigger warnings section and has a spoiler. It's why I can't recommend for disabled rep or give a full 4 stars. I would still recommend this book in general and for lgbtia/ queer readers specifically.

It was more scifi than steampunk. I was expecting more steampunk themes, since it had a character with a clockwork heart. I did enjoy the themes of reluctant friendships, plus the health and politics of planetary settlements. The world building wasn't very complex. It was steampunky in the sense that science is hand-waved away (and maybe the anti-establishment themes lol.)

I'm not marking queer themes as spoilers because it's not really a reveal, and there's too little rep:
For ace or asexual rep; I was glad to see it, but I wish there was more than one mention of Nathaniel's feelings and thoughts on it, after he realized he wasn't alone or 'broken'. It would have been nice for his thoughts in the wrap up, when we got a hint that the f/f relationship wasn't hidden. I appreciated that it was explicitly stated under terms of asexual and aromatic.

I also appreciated that the author didn't have him go through with a marriage of convenience anyway.

I wish there was some racial diversity, but I didn't pick up on any, if it was there. Both women are coded as white.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, and Physical abuse

Minor: Xenophobia

I wasn't prepared for the child death. It seemed to be the turning point for Nathan to decide to do the right thing. I don't disagree that it was effective, but the turning point could have been him seeing how affected even children were by the actions of his father. Proof of Anna's claim that he was complicit in their sickness. Roman could have still lived but needed medical attention for that. He was fridged. We could have had more rep with a happy child, who happened to be missing an arm, but instead he just moved the plot.