Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Powerless by Lauren Roberts

48 reviews

karydiazc's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

Are three stars of rating too high for this book?
Maybe...

I guess I'll collect  my thoughts and then proceed the rant...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Torture and Pandemic/Epidemic

ladybug12793's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

4.25

Enthralling.

I love a good deadly trials book. The plot twists were somewhat obvious, but the book was still very entertaining. I didn’t want to set it down.

0 🌶️

One of my favorite quotes I’ve read:

“I’d never thought about what my favorite color was before. It never seemed important. Not until I looked into a pair of ocean-blue eyes and realized that perhaps drowning was a beautiful thing. Not until I looked into a pair of fiery blue eyes and realized that perhaps burning was a painless thing. Not until I looked into a pair of sky-blue eyes and realized that perhaps falling was a peaceful thing. I’d never thought about what my favorite color was before because I hadn’t seen one that was worthy of the title. Until now, that is.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, and Death of parent

Minor: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

ect625's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

Paedyn shares many qualities and traits with Celaena in Throne of Glass, Oraya in The Serpent and the Wings of Night, and Violet in Fourth Wing. Powerless has a similar vibe and rough storyline as those books, and scrappy, knife-throwing stabby girls are my fave FMCs, so I loved this book.

A friend who also read the book commented that the magic/power system isn't that great, and I agree with her. It's cumbersome and the origin story feels needlessly complicated. Fortunately, it's easy to take the storyline at face value without needing to think too hard about the how and why.

It's a classic story of 

Scrappy Girl meets Powerful Bad Boy, they fight, she throws knives, he falls in love, she denies her feelings but finally admits them

and that all leads to the ultimate conflict and unresolved ending that sets up the sequel.

Not all books have to be Shakespeare and sometimes a formulaic

stabby girl-bad boy

story is just what I'm looking for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Torture and Deportation

aralalala's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

What an amazing debut from Lauren Roberts! Powerless was such a fun, exhilarating ride. I’m typing this as soon as I finished and my heart is still pounding like crazy.

First, I’m so grateful that though Pae and Kai share similar spunk and vibes, they had unique voices so switching POVs wasn’t so hard considering that it wasn’t exactly alternating between chapters.

Second, I’m definitely here for all their banter. Having come from a previous book I DNF’d because of bad banter (and I thought I just grew out of that), Powerless does it so, so well. I was squealing through chapters of endless undeniable chemistry and witty comebacks. I didn’t even care much for the fact that I was being dragged into their romance more than the actual plot—which was still moving, by the way, but come on, Kai Azer??? Swoon.

Oh, but the book doesn’t just do the romantic tension well. The plot is thick and heavy and I’m surprised it actually goes deeper than initially offered. It’s a mix of quite a few things but done so well so far, and I just hope the end of the trilogy delivers a satisfying closure to all of it. It’s ambitious to say the least but exciting all the same. 

I totally get the hype around it. It’s definitely worth picking up, and I fear picking up the sequel so soon knowing it’s gonna take a while before the last book gets released!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing

pianokeys's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

beckyremillard's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Animal death

_froggy_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture and Death of parent

krosebooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Pros: Flirting is gold. 

Cons: Unrealistic power description. Lack of description about the length of the trials. Mirrored a lot of previous work like the hunger games, ACOTAR (darling). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

squidney36's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Absolutely gutted me
So much sorrow I couldn’t even cry
Plot twist after plot twist
Competition vibes strong
Combo of Throne of Glass and Hunger Games

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cursing, Vomit, and Alcohol

liv2000's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic