Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

29 reviews

lilacs_book_bower's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Blurb: "In a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic, a desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial lady find a connection on the high seas."  Very mixed feelings about this one.  There is great LGBTQ rep, and the two leads are POC characters, and I appreciated the discussions and seeing the effects of colonization by the Empire.  The Witch had some great stories.  The world building left a lot to be desired, but there were some cool elements and ideas.  
Other than that, I didn't like most of the characters, and didn't even care about the two leads especially.  They fall in love very quickly.  This book is dark, please check the CW.  CW:

even off-page, I don't want to read about child rape.

There are a few plot holes.  There are two endings and I didn't appreciate either of them.  I get what the author is going for

with Evelyn and Florian, it's their reward and they get to be together, but it didn't feel like Florian really has atoned enough to earn that, and "they both turn into mermaids' fits with the magic of the book, but also feels like a story a five year old would tell.

.  The second ending is about a character that I didn't like, so I didn't care about what happens to them, even though, again, I feel like I understand what the author is going for.  
If you like fantasy, especially with good LGBTQ rep, and like stories on the darker side, I would give this one a try.  In spite of the mixed bag of reactions, I would read another from this author.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape

aexileigh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

pineapple_queen's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Outing, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

ezwolf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

First of all the way this book deals with gender is amazing and Florian is one of my favorite characters in relation to how they use gender and presentation and it was great. 

Second, if you’re looking for a pirate story sort of similar to Our Flag Means Death this is for you. They’re similar but also quite different. It’s got gay characters and non-binary pirates and nobility escaping their duties. 

I’m not usually one for alternating point of views but I thought all of these characters were great and even if you weren’t meant to root for them; they were still intriguing to read about and read their motivations. 

Flora and Evelyn’s relationship and the stories of love and how they overcome the idea that all love ends in heartbreak was wonderful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Drug use, Torture, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Child abuse and Sexual assault

ailsaod's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful slow-paced

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

4.0

 This was a story that had some very original and interesting takes on the pirate sub-genre as well as gender and mermaids but it was also a little odd. Given the premise of pirates and romance with added cross-dressing I was expecting something a little fun, possibly light-hearted or goofy. Let my tell you now that actually this story is about guilt - everyone is drowning in regrets or has abandoned their morals entirely. Piracy is shown as a harsh, unforgiving lifestyle that brings out the very worst in people and while this is more realistic it was also rather gloomy.

I found the magic system in this book very odd and difficult to get my head around and it ultimately didn't have much of an effect on the story for the amount of emphasis it got in the middle sections? The romance had a similar problem - there is a lot of long distance pining with very little foundation before it and then when they are back together its treated like its the romance of the century. It all feels a little fast to me.

Despite my complaints I think this book was good, it just didn't really align with my tastes. I think there were some really good ideas and some people would absolutely love it

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

The rape is only implied but features pretty heavily.

dtierra's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Trafficking, Grief, and War

Minor: Confinement, Drug use, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Classism

There are parts of this book I loved but overall I was disappointed by how little time the main characters had together. Most of the book is spent with them apart and it is painfully slow moving. The pace of the book feels all over the place, parts of it move quite fast and other parts move painstakingly slowly. There are some really beautiful lines on the central romance but I wish there was more. I am extremely disappointed by

the bury your gays trope present in the book, while there is a somewhat happy ending, it felt unnecessary to the plot. The ending of the book, the very last chapter was also a bit unnecessary and confusing to me. It definitely could have been wrapped up better

. The world building was great, I just think Pt 2 of the book could be drastically shortened and I would have loved for Pt 3 to have been given 50-100 more pages!

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Vomit, Grief, Outing, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

Self-injury for magical purposes. Misgendering of a side character.

grace_bunty's review against another edition

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

foreverinastory's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

Oh my god, this was soooo fun! So glad I finally read it.

Rep: Japanese inspired cast. Dark skinned genderfluid queer MC, sapphic cis female MC, dark skinned male side character, nonbinary side character, indigenous cishet male side character.

CWs: Torture (water boarding), violence, blood, death, murder, slavery, alcoholism, alcohol consumption, trafficking (slaves), colonisation, gun violence, physical abuse, grief, addiction, gore, rape, injury/injury detail, misogyny, sexism, sexual assault, child death, confinement, xenophobia, general queerphobia/queermisia, drug use, emotional abuse, sexual harassment, animal cruelty (mermaids), drug abuse, child abuse, racism. Moderate: vomit, genocide recounted, pedophilia, kidnapping, death of parent, lesbophobia/lesbomisia, classism, gaslighting, war. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Pedophilia, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, War, and Classism

sssssoup's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Vomit, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

Minor: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, and War