Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

7 reviews

itsreyz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

This book feels like The Craft set in the Victorian era. I see why some may dislike it but I personally quite enjoyed reading it. Curious to see where the story goes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Sexism, Classism, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Misogyny, Child death, Addiction, and Bullying

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Abandonment, Medical content, and Drug abuse

bzliz's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

Although this is categorized as YA, I don’t think I could have endured or enjoyed it as a young adult. I picked it up because I remember the cover from when I was younger but I don’t recall ever reading it. Even after finishing, I can’t be sure if I read it and forgot or if the cover is just burned in my brain for some reason. 

Gemma Doyle leads a group of sheltered girls into a world of magic that she herself doesn’t understand and has only just begun to experience. The group discovers the past tragedy of a group before them called the Order whose desire for power had deadly consequences and tread the fine line of falling into that same tragedy. 

Portions drag on a little and to enjoy this you need to endure the historical trappings of misogyny and racism, plus the performative propriety and customs of the time. The magic system explored is less of a system encountered in many fantasy novels and is more like a nebulous innate ability that no one can explain and at times it left me outright confused. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Suicide

Minor: Racism, Self harm, Vomit, and Sexism

fictionaladventures's review

2.0

I honestly liked this better than I expected, even though I only gave it 2 stars. It wasn’t really the story for me because I’m not into historical fiction, but I thought the fantasy elements were weaved in well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

haleymaxinee's review

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexism, Bullying, Body shaming, Classism, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Lesbophobia, Racism, and Toxic friendship

emilylovesgoodbooks's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Bullying, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Self harm

zombiezami's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-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

3.75

I first read this book when I was a teenager, and I rated it 5 stars at that time. I value the book for what it gave to me at the time, feeling seen for having experiences like wondering who I truly am and wondering who would ever understand me. Plus, there's fulfillment of the teenage girl urge to have a magical world where you're all powerful for good measure. This book is, in a lot of ways, an aged up spiritual successor to The Secret Garden. 

Reading this as an adult, there are parts that I'm not so enamored with, hence the lower rating. The friendship between the main characters strikes me as much more toxic than it did when I was a teenager, especially since Pippa and Felicity never apologize for tormenting Ann. I also find it hard to root for Kartik to be with Gemma, since Gemma keeps implying threats that she will get him arrested, which, at that time period, would basically be a death threat. That being said, I still really like Ms. Moore as a character. 

I look forward to my re-read of the rest of the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Self harm, Suicide, and Sexism

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Racism, Sexual harassment, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Neglect, Antiziganism, Seizures

danibanani's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

I read this as a tween and loved it for the drama, the descriptions, the magic. I don't think it quite holds up, and not just for some of the problematic elements. I would love for things to make a bit more sense. Gemma should have put certain things together far earlier than she did given how intelligent we know her to be. What a melancholy ending this had! It really communicated the desperation of young women within the choking confines of patriarchy, thank gods that's not a problem anymore. 🫣😭
Despite its shortcomings, I was compelled to finish the reread, and mostly enjoyed it. Huzzah!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Suicide, Fatphobia, Murder, Child death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Ableism, Self harm, and Sexual harassment