Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

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

21 reviews

cecinamo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

I love this book! It is incredibly diverse and has really good sapphic, gender-fluid and non-binary rep. It is written absolutely beautifully! Reading it was such an amazing experience. The characters, the world building, the words, everything just fit and was so beautiful. It was so mythical and magical, the author just transports you straight into this amazing and beautiful world. I was invested the whole time, the story never felt dragged out or disconnected. The ending was so sljdlslskslsj T^T. I would 100% recommend this book. Already in the first chapter I knew it would become one of my favorites! 💕🌊🪼

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Blood, Classism, Drug abuse, Racism, Grief, Homophobia, Sexism, Addiction, Confinement, Death of parent, Violence, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Torture, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

Minor: Child abuse and Child death

marigold82's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

A love story above all else. However a  story about family, self discovery, and so much more. Quaintly written as folklore.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Trafficking, Homophobia, Confinement, Blood, Violence, Lesbophobia, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

carolined314's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.5

Emotional pirates and mermaids and about the tradeoffs that happen with poverty, fear, solitude, and addiction. Quite a book, with multiple nonbinary characters, queer love, and lovely lady operatives, along side cruel and vicious men. A lot of the latter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Torture, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Racial slurs, Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Racism, Classism, Trafficking, Sexism, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, and Colonisation

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Homophobia

viireads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Gore

Minor: Homophobia, Confinement, and Sexual harassment

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

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

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

raen99's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Dysphoria, Torture, and Slavery

Moderate: Kidnapping, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Blood, Confinement, and Drug abuse

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

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

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

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

Spoiler

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!

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.0

I enjoyed this book, but it had potential for so much more. 

I liked the setting and the atmosphere a lot. The world was very intriguing and magical. The book read like a fairy tale... although a gruesome one. I was really shocked by how gruesome this story actually was. There was violence and death and blood and torture on page, and implied rape and assault. Also, topics like colonialism, imperialism, and sexism were present. 
What I absolutely loved was the queer representation and diversity. One main character is gender-fluid, the other a lesbian, there is a non-binary side character. And I liked how these were portrayed.

But the pacing and plot was kind of off. I wish we had more times to get to know the characters, and especially more time with the characters interacting with each other. They spend a lot of time together and get to know each other, but because most of it happens off page, the romance feels very instant and over the top dramatic towards the end. 

The middle part was also weird. I loved the witchcraft element that is introduced, but the magic system is not really explained well. It's interesting, but very confusing. And it's not used enough afterwards to justify how much time we spend learning about it. 

I liked the ending and how all the characters and plots came together. It just would have been more impactful if we had more time before to develop more feelings for everyone and everything that was happening. 

I didn't mind all those things that much because of the fairy tale character of the book. It just could have easily been a 5 star for me with a bit more substance. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Child death, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Kidnapping, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, Sexism, Torture, and Trafficking

Minor: Homophobia, Vomit, Sexual content, Rape, and Sexual assault

shadeyc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

Surprisingly brutal, but thoroughly engrossing. The stories (myths) intermingled were fascinating. I did not think I would grow to like any of the characters, however, I realised towards the end I was reading much faster and thoroughly invested in several people. 
Side note - that cover is gorgeous. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Torture, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Violence

Moderate: Classism, Blood, Grief, Drug use, Sexual assault, and Physical abuse

Minor: Misogyny, Vomit, Trafficking, Lesbophobia, and Confinement

archcon's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

It was awesome to see all the queer representation in this book, and some of the worldbuilding ideas were cool. Overall though I found it to be not very well written and at times felt almost forced. Character and plot development didn't feel consistently natural.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Death, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Slavery, Violence, Sexism, Classism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault, Confinement, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Child death