Reviews tagging 'Classism'

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

31 reviews

jstilts's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

The first part in a series, this book nevertheless is just about satisfying for the emotional/confidence journey it takes the lead upon (albeit slightly rushed at the end but I carries through well enough in book 2). I won't recap the plot as that would remove the tension, but this book is basically about an arranged marriage between two countries - but our lead character has been kept in the dark about how much danger this marriage will expose her to, to the point where she has to spend half the book in disguise amongst those who wish her dead. It's an interesting mix of fantasy and what could have been a period drama (almost a Jane Austen romance but one gone deliciously wrong). It probably wouldn't have been enough to be one or the other, but both genres combined lift this into a compelling tale of intrigue as she tries to survive the world she has been thrust into, and rise above the limited role she is being forced to play.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Violence, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

katclaybaugh's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a really fun read. The world building was excellent. It broke out of a lot of the cliches of the genre. I really look forward to getting the next book in the series! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Sexual assault, Violence, Police brutality, and Pregnancy

This was all fairly mild and definitely YA appropriate.

brennagraphs's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse and Child death

jenny_librarian's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Je ne sais pas trop quoi penser de ce livre. Le côté politique est intéressant, mais comme absolument aucun personnage n’est attachant, ça m’a empêché de ressentir quelque empathie que ce soit pour eux.

J’ai l’impression qu’Ophélie est demi-romantique, et Thorn présente plusieurs traits autiste. Est-ce voulu? Je n’en sais rien, mais c’est ce qui m’a semblé le plus captivant dans ma lecture.
Malheureusement, tous les personnages sont froids et la plupart sont dénués de caractérisation outre des défauts très superficiels qui deviennent leur entière personnalité.

Je ne sais pas non plus si le sous-entendu est intentionnel, mais les “provinciaux” semblent avoir un accent québécois et ça me rend mal à l’aise. Tout comme les références à la religion animiste, qui est fondamentalement liés à l’histoire coloniale et aux peuples africains et autochtones — pour la plupart décimés par les colonies françaises… M’enfin, c’est peut-être seulement mon interprétation de la chose.

Je ne sais pas encore si je vais lire la suite. Ce sont de gros livres avec peu d’action qui demandent beaucoup de travail cérébral pour peu de résultats.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

ransomoney's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

There are several production/editing issues with the audio book. Narrator repeating lines, messing up words, and awkward pauses and mouth noises. 

This book wasn’t really for me. almost dnf about half way through. The characters are all very cruel to each other, which makes sense within the setting but I didn’t enjoy reading. 

Also overuse of the word “lugubrious”

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Drug use, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Trafficking, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

penofpossibilities's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicide, Torture, Abortion, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Genocide, Infertility, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Vomit

itsreirei's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I am soooo conflicted. I cannot in good conscience give this book a better rating...I REALLY wanted to like it but uhh...my brain was melting while reading it. 

This is an extremely slow start to the series, lots of information yet there's somehow even more things left unsaid and unclear. The characters are all two-faced and full of secrets, refuse to communicate - which wouldn't necessarily be a problem but it was just a lot, since it's not what I expected at all. 

This is a very heavy book to read (tbh, could've been a good 100+ pages shorter), NOT a fun ride, one has to put time and brain power into consuming it. 

I'll have to wait with continuing the sequels but also I am admittedly very intrigued to know what the fuck is happening because BOY was there a lot in here...

PS.: I ain't joking with the CWs, I might even have left out some, bruh

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

stephaniemcuervo's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism

Moderate: Police brutality and Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage, Death of parent, and Murder

lokes's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

1.25

This was… well, is was something. 
The worldbuilding was a bit sloppy, but interesting, but plot and characters? Icky. Like, really bad. 

Not only did it have tropes such as forced marriage and hints of pedophilia (as soon as the guy was always called a “man with his big hands; like a father; etc” and the woman described as “girl with small hands; being generally very young and clueless and in need of constant help”) I had a bad feeling and boy wasn’t I wrong. 

I don’t know why so many people like a book which is filled with sexism, weird stereotypes, classism, racism and basically everything you don’t want to read about when it is normalized (or rather being glorified, because you just couldn’t catch a break when reading. It just kept coming)

I do feel like I need to apologize to the person I am now that I read this book because it wasn’t pleasant and I feel like I need to unlearn all of the very harmful stuff I just read about. 

The writing style’s not bad though, I could have liked it without the weird content. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug use, Blood, Death of parent, and Classism

kindredkayjay's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

Warning for spoilers.

I've seen the reviews of people disliking this book because of the way Ophelia is hardly treated like a person the entire time, and I understand it. Believe me, I was infuriated for Ophelia 95% of the time, but also? I'm hoping that she'll get herself to a place where she's proven herself and overcomes what she's faced with in the sequels. The tension between nearly all of the characters and the mystery and learning about the different magic systems with Ophelia was so interesting that I couldn't stop reading. I love a genuinely good hearted character, but what I love even more is a character so terrible that you want nothing more than to see their downfall. It's even more interesting when it's a small handful of decent (questionably decent anyway) characters entering a space full of the most vile people. If you don't enjoy being infuriated for the main character the entire time and hating just about everyone else, this book probably isnt for you. But if you do? Absolutely read it. I really liked it, and I'm reading the sequel soon.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Infidelity, Blood, Abandonment, and Alcohol