Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Monstress - Despertar by Marjorie Liu

58 reviews

30something_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

Wow, this was such a gorgeous graphic novel. Visually impeccable. And the story is fascinating.

I found myself struggling just a bit with some of the time jumps because they were not always labeled or easily identifiable. (I do think there were some nice differentiations with the color pallets used, but, again, it was not always easy to spot.) I did find my groove towards the end though.

I'll absolutely be continuing this series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and War

jessereadsthings's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

3.0

Interesting, so far. I also, enjoy the art quite a bit!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Homophobia

celestriakle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.25

I was just lamenting the way western comics tend to be stiffer and less dynamic than most manga, and then along comes monstress. the art in this is absolutely stunning. (though a few points lost for some characters who look so similar i struggled to tell them apart.) the lore is DENSE and they just throw you in, but its still progressive enough you can put things together. dont sweat the names, you'll pick it up. i never felt overwhelmed.

i also really liked how most of the characters were women, even mooks and minoe bg charaters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, and Pedophilia

Minor: Rape, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Abandonment

mary_c's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

This graphic novel was very very violent and gruesome.  It is not for people who are sensitive to pictures of children being harmed.  It depicts medical violence, and  torture or torture victims.  I wish someone from book club had warned me before I opened it.  I think much of the artistic design was beautiful, but I just couldn’t appreciate it because I was affected by the very dark content. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

cloverbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, and War

jasisreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, and War

growintogardens's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

The art is so beautiful. The story is a little confusing at times and quite dark.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

cthulhu_calamari's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Genocide and Toxic friendship

itisnatal's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, and Cannibalism

proudtobeabookaholic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

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

3.0

Maika Halfwolf is a 17-year-old survivor in the war between humans and Arcnics. In search of her past she becomes both hunter and hunted. At the same time the monster within her starts to awaken. 

I've been wanting to read this series for a long time, but now that I've read the first book I'm not sure what I really think about it. It's an unusually complex world building for a graphic novel, so I sometimes had trouble understanding all connections. Maika is also a rather complex character, and I shift between feeling sorry for her and thinking she behaves poorly. I enjoy the steampunk inspired environment and the style of drawing, but I find it unnecessarily bloody and violent. The fact that it takes place in an alternative Asia is interesting, but the question is if it's enough for me to keep reading the series? I honestly don't know. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, War, and Injury/Injury detail