Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson

6 reviews

joliebean's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War

thebuzzcutreads_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death and Abortion

imds's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

hobbithopeful's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

5.0

 Thank you Penguin for this ARC
This book tore my heart out and then served it back to me on a silver platter. What's worse is that I loved every second of it!
Dawson perfectly captures what's like to experience life as a woman, it feels like she reaches into my brain and puts my darkest experiences to page. Part of the reason this trilogy is so difficult to read is because how close to real life it is. All the hate, fear, and bitterness isn't fictional. The only thing fictional about this book is the magic and witchery. Everything else sadly, you can easily find anywhere in the world.
This is in no way shape or form a light and happy read. There is sisterhood, family, and love, but what they all go through and experience is difficult at best, depressing at worst. Definitely check your tws before reading because there is a lot of death, murder, homophobia, sexism and more fun stuff.
I was so ready to hate Ciara, everything we learned in the last book really had her painted as "evil" plain and simple. If there's anything I should have learned from Dawson's writing, is that people are messy, complex, floundering creatures. There is no good or evil, only the choices we make, and we can always come back from it. ‘No. There’s always a way back,’ he said, trying to convince them both. ‘You just . . . turn around and go the way you came.’
My favorite pov is from Leonie, she is such a badass and I loved her adventure. On the flip side I always have such a hard time enjoying reading Elle's chapters. She just really annoys me and the way she behaves would drive me to therapy if I were her child. I didn't expect Luke's plotline to take him where it did, I enjoyed it, but it almost feels like too much out of left field.
Another MUST READ from Juno Dawson, this is shaping up to be one of my favorite series! Please I need the final book! DAWSON LOVES CLIFFHANGERS TOO MUCH!!

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

aseel_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective medium-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? Yes

4.25

For the first part of the book, I was very confused about the plot but I was here for the vibes! Using witches to talk about sexism, racism, transpobia etc is a sure fire way to make me love a book. But as it kept going, I saw the plot unfolding and I'm super keen to see where this series goes and I hope it's a long one! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

wishbea'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This was definitely a step down from book 1 for me, I was disappointed. I hoped Ciara would make for a compelling POV read, but I preferred Niamh and missed the found family vibes of Elle, Holly, Niamh, Theo and Luke from the first book.

We get Theo, Chinara and Luke POVs here. I liked Theo's a lot, but found Luke's so boring that I started skipping his POVs when they came up (except for the very last one).

You can really feel the loss of the characters who died in the last book. I found it difficult to care about the characters or the plotlines, Ciara's one was okay, but Leonie's was boring, Theo's was just to set up the cliffhanger and Elle's was for shock value.

Hale took a dive from a potentially interesting villain in book 1 to a generic evil-doer that is hard to take seriously in this book.

I do think my main issue is Ciara. I don't know what to make of her. She has a lot going on mentally, yet I feel like she lacks depth and she isn't compelling to read. Also she

rapes Luke multiple times (he thinks she is Niamh) and that is treated as okay within the narrative.

I disliked her immensely and hated how Dawson seemingly wants the reader to root for her despite all the reprehensible things she does. 

I felt like I had a good grasp on how the magic works in book 1, but there were points where I was incredibly confused by it in this book.

I've completely lost interest in this series and will not be reading the third book when it comes out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

Minor: Transphobia