Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

9 reviews

sage_alexandra's review against another edition

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: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Vomit, Stalking, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

cookiecat73's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I finished this book in 3 days, which considering the amount I've been reading on average per day so far this year, is fast. The writing style is one that I flew through, and the plot had me hooked from chapter one, which isn't common. Despite the constant threat of death, the trauma, and dark topics, this is the funniest book I've read in a while. It doesn't make light of the heavy stuff, but the narration and dialogue contain a lot of jokes which so happened to be exactly my sense of humour, and I laughed a lot. I also cried a little bit.

I adore so many of the characters, especially Ragne. The world was good, though nothing incredible. The Gods were amazing, probably my favourite Gods that I've ever read in a story, though to be fair I'm not normally a big fan of Gods in stories so there's not much competition. The description of Eiswald was incredible.

Unfortunately, this book isn't 5 stars for me. So many parts of it were, and I wish it had been 5 stars, but there were certain things in it that I just didn't like as much. Nothing it did wrong really, just things that brought my enjoyment of it down.

I can't believe they called this Untitled Goose Girl when it was being written, reading that in the acknowlegments cracked me up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, Outing, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Body horror, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Transphobia, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia

mattyb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Rape, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming, Torture, Violence, and Classism

mxmarta's review

emotional funny mysterious 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

I loved everything about this book. I started reading it in 2022 but then too much time passed and I decided to re-read from the beginning so I didn't miss any of the finer plot points.
The plot, the pacing, the characters, the enemies-to-lovers vibe are *chef's kiss* 
Most of all, the demi/ace spec representation by two of the main characters was amazing to read, it was the first time I read something with an ace spec character POV. The book has a lot of queer representation, including trans and non binary people, and it's especially well done in a fantasy medieval setting, although some of the mentions are only in passage, it was refreshing to see it so seamlessly done.
The only thing that left me mildly unsatisfied was the very last chapter, since it was

an epilogue but I wanted more dialogue between the two main characters after they finally got through everything and came out on the other side finally on the same page about being with each other (in particular, a passage that was just the narrator relaying what they said to each other... Much less squee worthy read like that instead of the actual scene!!! But it was just a small thing, so I still give it 5 stars because it really did not take from the story at all)

, but it was also 1:30am and I stayed up late to finish it so it may have been influenced by that.
I'm excited to read the next book, and that this was the first book of the year!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexual assault and Classism

matcha_pages's review

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture

albernikolauras's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is a retelling of Goose Girl from the perspective of the thief. It starts off slow and Vanya is an extremely stubborn and frustrating character (which I can relate to at times).

As the book carries on and you learn more about Vanya and Vanya starts being forcibly befriended by multiple people, the book gets better and better. By the 30% mark, this book had stolen my heart.

It's not a book that will work for everyone, but some of the scenes between Vanya and other characters just hit me. It was the perfect ideal fairytale to help break the slump for the time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, and Murder

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Abandonment, and Classism

onthesamepage's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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? Yes

3.0

Thinks I liked:
* Overall, the story has a lot of fun elements, what with the heists and people teaming up to defeat the big bad.
* It's not so much a retelling of The Goose Girl, as a story that is loosely inspired by the setup of The Goose Girl, which works in its favor.
* The writing style lends itself really well to the story and brings with it a certain lightness and sense of humor that work very well with our POV character.
* Vanja is an interesting character to follow, because there is so much to discover about her and her motivations. In fact, there isn't a single character (villains aside) that I didn't like.
* I found myself getting a bit emotional during a couple of scenes, when we finally get to the core of why Vanja is the way she is. She's morally grey in a lot of ways, but also very relatable, which I appreciated.
* I loved the demisexual representation and the way the romance developed between Vanja and Emeric (for the most part).

Things I didn't like:
* The writing was too quirky and "clever" sometimes, in a way that would take me out of the story. For example, Vanja likens one of the characters (someone she has known for a few years) to an animal, says she has no idea why that character reminds her of that animal, and then goes "oh, wait, maybe it's because of so and so" because she just now realized why.
* I understand that Vanja has issues, but her "I do care about people but I will never let them know it" attitude got exhausting after a while. And so did her constant, willful misunderstanding every time Emeric tried to protect her.
* The 3rd act conflict in the romance made me roll my eyes so hard and felt overblown.
* The book is way too long for the story it's trying to tell.
* The ending was satisfactory, and I don't understand why we're getting a sequel. It feels very unnecessary, and you can absolutely read this as a standalone. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Torture

Minor: Sexual assault and Abandonment

lri_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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: Abandonment and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Torture, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and War

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, and Sexual assault

theespressoedition's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.5

I truly enjoyed every moment of reading this book! Honestly, sometimes, that's all I want to say in a review. Sometimes, it's not because a book has great emotional depth or because the characters are super relatable. Sometimes, friends, it's just because the story was entertaining and I liked it.

That's how I felt about Little Thieves. It was incredibly creative - truly, I've never read anything quite like it. Though I will say that if you're a fan of Six of Crows, you may enjoy this one. It's really not similar at all, but it gives off some of the same vibes? I hope that makes sense.

I picked this up because everyone was raving about it on bookstagram at the end of 2021 and I can see why. The magic was incredibly unique (though never really explained beyond the gods having some hand in it, I believe), there was fantastic diversity, and the twists were excellent - nothing totally mind-blowing, just really fun!

There were definitely some triggering elements to it, but you know what? THE AUTHOR INCLUDED TRIGGER WARNINGS. Like, hello! Thank you! That should be at the beginning of every book ever. And guess what else? That actually made it easier for me to read the book, because I knew what I was getting into ahead of time, and when those moments arose, I wasn't put out by it.

Despite giving it 4.5 stars immediately following reading it, I've already forgotten a great deal. That could just be because my mind is elsewhere lately. Okay, actually, yeah, I'm gonna just blame it on that, because honestly, I think if I were totally focused right now, I'd be able to tell you every single detail. At least I can remember most of the character names (that's a new one for me).

Anyyyyways, it immediately went on my wishlist because I'd really like to read it again. I feel as though I could gain more from it with a reread in the future!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Murder and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail