Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

La más bella de todas by Serena Valentino

8 reviews

presco's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Child abuse and Physical abuse

seregelda's review against another edition

emotional 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

3.0

CW: character named "Slave," child abuse

Not what I expected, an interesting take followed by the story we know from the film.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Slavery, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

reading_books_as_escapism_lol's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

z_thatsit's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Gore, Infertility, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lunarxcross's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Death of parent

syd991's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-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? Yes

3.0

I’m not exactly sure what to say about this book. I generally enjoy the idea of twisted fairytales and retellings, but I didn’t love this one.

I didn’t overly enjoy any of the characters or story. I do feel intrigued enough to perhaps pick up another book in the series someday.

I feel like the thing that really turned me off of this book was the style, it’s very straight to the point, and I feel like I would have loved it more if there was a bit more expressiveness in the writing.

So overall, not my personal cup of tea, but I still somewhat enjoyed it, so maybe you will too.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Violence and War

angeleye24's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

studiouspoppy's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-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? Yes

2.75

I started reading this book because I'm interested in stories that show a different perspective of a classical story such as Snow White. Although I didn't dislike this book, it never really caught me in the plot, and I felt like the character development of the Wicked Queen was very stereotypical.
For once, the idea of the Queen being good at the beginning is represented by a very "motherly/nurturing" woman, who was once abused as a child and tries to be a good mother to her stepdaughter. Then, grief turns her into an evil woman, who is addicted to her father's approval (which she wished for all her life), and part of her "evilness" is represented by her lack of maternal feeling towards Snow, and her ambition. Obviously, there are other aspects of her new personality, like jealousy and cruelty, but I think is kind of sexist to turn her into an ambitious woman to make her look bad, making ambition to be an un-womanly trait.
There's also the idea of the mirror telling the Queen she has "matured" and that she has grown to not care about the matters of the heart, which was necessary to rule and care about more important matters. I think this is too similar to the idea of men being rationals and women being emotional, which has been used as an argument to exclude women from public life and politics.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Abandonment