Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Caraval, by Stephanie Garber

15 reviews

angstifies's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense

• 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

4.75

this book was so unique and magical, i had a lot of fun trying to unravel the mystery which turned out to be very different than i thought it did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Kidnapping, Murder, Abandonment, Blood, Torture, Violence, and Suicide

Minor: Injury/injury detail, Alcohol, Confinement, and Grief

parkerknoll's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

littlelindsey's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

Interesting idea that is appealing because it’s so mysterious and fanciful. It’s really a dark story about a bunch of liars. Main character is loveable but everyone else sucks. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Domestic abuse, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Blood

siglerbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Violence, Suicide attempt, and Torture

Minor: Confinement, Abandonment, Blood, Death, and Kidnapping

rensreading's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

i thought all might have been lost on the last day of caraval but i really should have known better.

oh, there were so many twists and turns! some i could see coming and others were a huge surprise. still, i'm left with a lot of questions left unanswered but i think that might be cleared up when i read the sequel.

sometimes, scarlett annoyed me due to how defenseless and naive she thought her sister donatella to be. it felt more like her projecting since she's the eldest and has had to protect her sister from their abusive father since their mother abandoned them. i feel for her but at the same time, it felt a little repetitive since that seemed to be her main concern with her sister until the history between her grandma and legend was revealed. i didn't like donatella though. i think in the epilogue we're
supposed to feel sorry for her but i just felt annoyed.

Spoiler

she kidnapped her own sister, staged her own fake kidnap, gaslit her sister into thinking she had gone insane, died then came back to life because her sister loved her so much and we're supposed to feel sorry for her because she didn't end up getting a love story like scarlett? that's some manipulative shit right there and i'm not down with it. it
really pissed me off actually.

i know the sequel is meant to be from her point of view so i think ill hold off on reading it for now.

it took me a while to realize julian was going to be the love interest, but once i did i was all for it. i could tell he had a lot more secrets than he was hinting at yet my mind ran wild with possibilities after scarlett

Spoiler

traded those 2 days of her life away

. i loved the tender moment they had when she did that though since it pushed julian enough to show his true feelings by

Spoiler

giving her one day of his life so they only had to waste one day at caraval instead of two. and gods, when he died, my heart broke. i knew he was going to betray her in some way, but by taking that knife to his face for her sake, i knew his feelings were real too. i was devastated by his last words and how she begged him to keep fighting. a death scene has not spoken to me so much in such a long time so i did get a little teary- eyed. AND THEN HE CAME BACK!

i loved him so much as a character and i'm happy they got a promise of a happy ending. i hope to see more of him, especially, in the sequel.

4.5 stars from me (:

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Injury/injury detail, Murder, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Child abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Stalking

Minor: Rape

the sisters’ father is an awful person and the cause of many content warnings. the rape is only attempted and is more a version of coercion than sexual assault, the mc does not lose even one article of clothing if you were wondering how severe that scene is.

mir_frog73's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Suicide, Physical abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/injury detail, Grief, Confinement, Child abuse, Blood, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual assault

whatswithrandy's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Murder, Gaslighting, Death, and Child abuse

Minor: Blood, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Misogyny, Rape, Torture, and Violence

mel_s_bookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Torture, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Abandonment and Body horror

izzie_chamomilletea's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

First of all, finally a fantasy book that doesn’t have an elaborate and borderline  incomprehensible beginning!! Now is that due to do with lack of general development… maybe but oh well. I saw some of the reviews on goodreads and they were pretty harsh but honestly to me this book was really good. It has a mysterious and dangerous mood, and a great romance arc. This book toys with the lines of what’s real and what isn’t which makes the book all the more interesting— it’s a puzzle. The ending did give me a headache and lots of anger like

Spoiler

they’re dead then they’re not dead, is Julian even the same if he’s not calling her Crimson anymore??? What is going on with Donnatellla shhdhshshs

but that’s just more motivation to read the second book.  Don’t forget to check the content warnings :)!

Spoiler

Also yeah a lot of the reviews critiqued the ending and I agree with them. I love a good twist but this was practically nonsensical, it left me frustrated rather than awe struck, didn’t even know what to think.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, and Torture

alee02's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.25

This was a fast and fun read but it’s not the strongest writing (the similes are a little out of control, i.e. a kiss “tasted like wind”, something was “the color of list things”). The magic of the world is very compelling and because of the narrator’s perspective bounds to that magic we’re difficult to establish, but this sometimes cheapened the stakes of the game. When I got to the end, I felt the slightest bit underwhelmed. Still a fast-paced, fun, and compelling read with a fast start.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Death

Moderate: Sexual violence and Suicide

Minor: Torture