Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Small Angels by Lauren Owen

9 reviews

maeverose's review against another edition

I hoped I would like this but it was just too slow for me, and the only part I really cared about was Lucia and Kate’s romance. It wasn’t worth it for me to trudge through the rest just for that.

I felt like we got Harry’s backstory too early on. After that there wasn’t as much mystery and I didn’t find anything that was happening all that scary or interesting.

Spoiler

Especially given Lucia’s friendship with him.

Maybe if I’d read further there would’ve been more mystery (I didn’t get to the point where they explained what happened to Elphine, for example), but I just didn’t care enough.

I liked this quote though:

“He never would notice that a downpour brings extra life to Mockbeggar. After the rain the trees are dark, the green pools deep in the woods are brimming, and the nettles are dripping under the weight of water. Even after the sky has cleared, the woods have their own rain. Whenever the breeze shakes the branches tiny showers fall from the leaves.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism

Probably more than that but that’s all I noticed as far as I read

silene's review

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

A spooky, not scary ghost story, Small Angels is about the power of stories, for both good and bad. It explores the boundaries between justice and revenge and forgiveness. It presents multiple flawed, endearing characters, even if you might want to shake sense into a few of them. The ending fits well, and the magic of the story lingers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, and Murder

slimepuppy's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I could write thousands of words about how this book draws incredible parallels between the Gonnes' suffering and cycles of abuse, about the the engaging mystery and the sad, tragic stories we carry through our lives, how we become tethered to them.

We should all try to tell it different, and I think Small Angels does it beautifully. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship

blackcatkai's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

this book is a slow burn full of atmosphere. a story of legends, family, friendship, & toxic relationships. a forest with its own spirit & secrets & I loved every minute of it. it had creepy vibes, a little romance, and an ending that had me a bit emotional. I would love to see this adapted into a film or mini-series.

I will absolutely be reading more of Lauren Owen's work.

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Content Warnings

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

milesofkiles's review

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Violence

exlibrisabigaillee's review

emotional hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

The lesson didn't stick with me as well as I thought it would. The characters were likable enough, I just didn't resonate with them super well. The story was very fun though, and I enjoyed the world!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Violence, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Child death, Murder, Blood, and Death

Minor: Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Lesbophobia, and Domestic abuse

One of the main families, the Gones, is very strict and emotionally abusive throughout the novel. One of the daughters finds solace with a friend who is very controlling and possessive. The Gones are in leagues with a spirit, of sorts, who

Spoiler

was a child murdered on the property years ago. His death is described

. (See the previous spoiler for murder & child death/abuse tw.) He is

Spoiler

the possessive friend of the daughter

. There is a vague child/minor relationship in the sense that

Spoiler

the spirit, who takes the form of a boy the daughter's age, died as an adult and is not truly a child

.

mandkips's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Death, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Grief, Child abuse, and Violence

Minor: Car accident

vigil's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

2.5

it adequately met my low expectations. i’ll add a longer review eventually.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

mgdoherty's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

This book carved me open and scooped out the contents of my heart and then rebuilt me. At its heart, it’s about generational trauma, about generations of abused children and drunk parents and unloved daughters and murdered siblings and loved ones gone too soon, all while Mockbeggar Woods preside over the village, as old and powerful as gods. I love the writing style and how each characters’ voice is so distinct. The format was beautiful and really suited to the magical fairytale feeling; multiple characters told their stories or part of their stories as we moved through the main plot, and each chapter both added to the main story and also felt like a complete fairytale in and of itself. 

This is such a tender story. There is so much tenderness and forgiveness here. Forgiving yourself for being a child who didn’t know any better, forgiving yourself your selfishness, and offering grace to everyone including yourself. And refusing to live in the story someone else wrote for you, because that someone else maybe didn’t write your story from a place of love, but a place of resentment. 

Definitely a new favorite book here. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Child abuse

Content warning if you can’t handle reading about buried alive (but also it is not REALLY about being buried alive). Spoilery details here:

Spoiler

so the ghost remembers inhabiting his body *after* he was dead and buried, so while he wasn’t really buried alive, his memories sort of feel like he was still alive beneath the ground. And other characters will sometimes “feel” his memories of being underground, sometimes very very viscerally to point of coughing up soil. (Coughing up soil only happens once though.)