Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

9 reviews

samburkhouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Suicide

Moderate: Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Confinement

Minor: Grief 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

wildflowerleahg's review against another edition

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

4.25

A fun twist on a classic fairytale. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Death of parent, and Abandonment

crownoflaurel's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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

Moderate: Murder and Kidnapping

Minor: Abandonment, Confinement, Suicide, and Violence

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

a_ab's review against another edition

adventurous reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I liked the writing, a lot, as usual — it is atmospheric, beautiful and almost mezmerizing. But the story didn't quite feel right, — it felt to me like a middle draft — much more mature and better shaped than the first draft, but not quite fully or correctly formed yet to be a finished story. It's a hard thing to put my finger on. And perhaps it's simply a result of me going into different associative and allegorical interpretational paths than the ones the author intended. But, unfortunately, I didn't like the story enough to keep thinking about it in hopes of eventually getting it right. 

This makes it a good book club discussion book though.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Murder, and Abandonment

schnaucl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

This was a (mostly) very sweet retelling of Sleeping Beauty with an interesting take: what it the thorns weren't to keep princes out, but Sleeping Beauty in? 

I loved Toadling and her family, and Halim and his (unmet) mother.  

I would 100% read more stories about Toading meeting Halim's family.   I'm so glad she gets to go out and live in the world and also that her family will be there waiting for her when she returns.  The best of both worlds.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Animal cruelty, Murder, Child death, Suicide, Abandonment, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

caseythereader's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

Thanks to Tor Books for the free copy of this book.

 - THORNHEDGE is a novella that asks "what if the damsel in distress was actually the villain?"
- I'm always impressed by Kingfisher's ability to craft a full world in so few pages. The world of this book feels lush, but it's only exactly as complicated as it needs to be.
- As I'm finding to be a hallmark of Kingfisher's work, THORNHEDGE is somehow cozy and gruesome at the same time. I don't know how, but it is. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Animal cruelty

hallowreads's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Animal death, Physical abuse, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Violence, Child death, Abandonment, War, and Confinement