Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

25 reviews

axel_p's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

This whas absolutely adorable.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Islamophobia, Xenophobia, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Kidnapping, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Suicide, and War

directorpurry's review

emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Confinement, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide and Kidnapping

mishmoshroom's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Death, Child death, Torture, Animal cruelty, and Injury/Injury detail

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Physical abuse, and Classism

Minor: Pregnancy, Child death, Murder, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cursing, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, and Religious bigotry

purplepenning's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Animal cruelty, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Blood, and War

tigger89's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad 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

This novella was dark, but at the same time cute(in a muddy, squishy sort of way) and occasionally funny. I couldn't help but root for Toadling, who was trying her best while everything was so impossibly hard. I also loved the character of Halim, who was in turns funny, caring, and somber. Something I appreciated was that there was no explicit romance on the page, though you could certainly read something into the Halim-Toadling interactions if you were so inclined.

While the story is dark, I wouldn't classify it as a horror story. Perhaps there's some horror in the story of the changeling, but it mostly hit me as sad and inevitable rather than scary. Horror is so deeply individual though, and I could see someone being very unsettled by the situation, especially if they have children.

The biggest strength of the story was undoubtedly the characters. The plot itself was average. I have no complaints about the Sleeping Beauty retelling, but it was nothing mindblowingly original. Plot-wise, I'd give this a solid 4 as far as fairy tale retellings-with-a-twist go, but I have to give it another star for how delightful the characters were. I actually really want a sequel with Toadling, but unfortunately I feel like this is going to be a one-off. I'll just have to settle for whatever else T. Kingfisher writes!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Cursing, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping and Murder

booksthatburn's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

THORNHEDGE is a Sleeping Beauty retelling which recasts the sleeper as someone best never woken: a faerie changeling whose confusion at the human world and disregard for other lives turns her into someone who can only be contained in sleep or stopped forever in death. The sleeper is constrained and contained by Toadling, the once-human girl who was stolen from her cradle and replaced by that very same changeling.

I like this as a take on Sleeping Beauty, but it plays the idea of changelings straight, not engaging with the historical links between “changeling” children and autism (or other ways of being ostracized for being strange). In that light, featuring a child so unable to learn social rules that she must be kept or killed becomes a more fraught narrative, one that makes the story harder to enjoy. I like Toadling and Halim, but because of how the backstory is told first as memories then as stories to Halim, I remain unsure just how much Toadling told him of what had happened. I appreciate Halim as an idea of a character, but as a novella there wasn’t really room to flesh out that many significant characters and Toadling received most of the detail (to Halim’s detriment). The time dilation between the human world and Faerie allows for a couple of cool narrative moments. Ultimately this is a book I would neither recommend nor dissuade someone from reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Murder, Animal cruelty, and Child death

Minor: Self harm, Cursing, Pandemic/Epidemic, Torture, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Suicide, and Death of parent

bluejayreads's review against another edition

4.5

A fascinating, slightly weird, and overall wildly creative retelling of the Sleeping Beauty myth where the princess was put to sleep for a very good reason and the wicked fairy who did it was barely more than a child herself (and arguably not even a fairy). Despite being several hundred years old at the opening of the story, Toadling was a curious mix of child-like and ancient. She may be able to turn into a toad at will, but I found the most fey thing about her was her nebulous place between young and old. She was engaging and I loved her. The story is told in a straightforward, bare-bones fairy tale style. Details are enough to sketch the world and the plot vividly enough to keep me hooked, but there is no flowery language or dwelling on feelings or reflecting on whether the happenings are right or wrong. Things just are what they are. Despite being a dark and somewhat twisted version of the story we know, it never felt excessively dark and retained a magical fairy-tale feel. I'm having a really hard time putting the mood of this story into words, but it's very good. And if you really want to understand what I'm trying to say, it's very short - just go read it for yourself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Child death, Body horror, and Kidnapping

Minor: Blood

tays_books's review

adventurous dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Blood, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Suicide, Animal death, and Kidnapping

Minor: Death of parent

affabletoaster's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Violence, Death, Confinement, Suicide, and Child death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War, Animal death, Torture, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Blood