Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Sorrow and Starlight by Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti

5 reviews

nineinchnails's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

this did not have to be as long as it was (it was 1200+ pages and ~15 hours of reading according to kindle) but i wasn't that annoyed at the unnecessary chapters in random characters' pov because there wasn't much going on anyway. the first 80% is just doom and more doom but it made up for it in the last 20% and i felt like things were finally starting to look up. the appeal of this series (for me) was it feeling relatively low stakes like if love island was fictional and set in a fantasy world but it's definitely changed over the last few books to a more high stakes/'serious' series and i don't know if it really fits with the way the story and characters were initially written. however, my biggest gripe is with tory's lack of character development. she just kinda reverted to book 4 tory and it was hard to watch. obviously grief was a big theme in the book and it's understandable that she wouldn't be at her best but it was 1000+ pages of her acting like that after she had grown so much in book 6 + 7. also the reunions were SO short (especially relative to the book length) i was pretty disappointed.

i'm excited for the final book though and i'm hoping there is some improvement with her character development now that the gangs all back together but i'm not feeling optimistic about that just yet. i have NO IDEA how they're going to wrap up this whole series in book 9 considering they just introduced a new all-powerful villain in the last 2% of this book but i'd be shocked if this wasn't the last book since it's being read by their beta readers rn. i don't think i'm going to read beyond the veil anytime soon just because i have a feeling it'll be like the awakening atbtb and repeat the plot of things that have already happened just from the pov of other characters and i would rather read that after i've had a little break from the series, for obvious reasons. i was originally planning on reading darkmore penitentiary now but i think i'll wait til after book 9 in case of spoilers😭 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Vomit, and Abandonment

selestre's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

_alyssar_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

2.75

I’m so confused.  This book dragged on, and almost went on my DNF list - which is extremely rare, and especially since I actually want to know how everything turns out for these characters.  

The story has been building and building over the first 7 books and then randomly in the last 10-15% of book 8, a bunch of loose ends get tied up, only for the whole story to unravel again in the last couple of chapters and leave us on a weird cliffhanger. Not only that, but the next two books in the series are apparently backtracks from different perspectives - the next one says it’s a retelling of the first book from the Heirs’ POV, and the currently final book in the series (book 10) says it’s a retelling from the POV of those that have passed.   So we’ll be left on this cliffhanger with no foreseeable ending through at least two more books before we can pick up and go again. 

The first few books really sucked me in, but the story is now spiraling wildly out of control with no ending in sight - pretty disappointed, as I’m now invested in this story through the first several books, but after book 8, I’m not sure I want to continue, despite still wanting to see how things turn out.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

tguccione's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and War

emgrace93's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Graphic: Bullying, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Language and Smut