Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood

7 reviews

ntstucky's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Grief, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Murder, Kidnapping, Death, Violence, Suicide, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Rape, Blood, and Slavery

fossilreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

As a story, on its own, exciting and thrilling. But as I'm not able to overlook the fact the author has called it a retelling without even reading the original story it is meant to portray, unfortunately I can not rate this better than 2,5 stars.

I'm personally not a fan of time jumps too much and the way flashbacks to memories or stories told were written, I got confused many times when we jumped from an orally told story to a memory instead.

I'm not very knowledgeable in greek mythology, so I'm not able to give an opinion on how accurate those parts of the story are.

I was happy to see Leto gather herself in the end, it frustrated me how flaky she was with going through with things she seemed to be so incredibly set on. But that's also just.. humanity.

Honestly Mathias might have been my favorite character in all this. He truly wanted the best and tried to do all he knew to be able to. I love and hate his ending, I just want him to have everything good in the world!

This is a heavy read for all the grief and especially the pain women go through (of course girls are the ones cursed and at the mercy of men, as it has gone throughout so much of history).

The ending was predictable, but in my opinion it was in a nice way and didn't ruin the book for me. Some things still felt left unanswered in the end, but at least most of it was a somewhat satisfying ending.

So in short: As a story, it's a great one with such grief and also some joy sprinkled in. In context of it supposedly being a retelling, ehhhh... It's a heavy read when you wish so much better for women in general.

I really liked the romances, but there were so many things that frustrated me within them. I understand Melantho's grief over her past lovers, but babygirl, you are allowed to love again. They are gone, taken from you, it's not like you're cheating.
Leto on the other hand... how easily do you forget Melantho as soon as you set your eyes (and lips) on the prince?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Sexual assault, Blood, Rape, and Grief

Moderate: Slavery

remaininlullaby's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.5

• i'm very gay
• wished this would've turned into more of a triangle tho
• beautiful prose, very bittersweet

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Death, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Rape

gondorgirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Minor: Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Sexual violence, Blood, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism

bluebreex's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

A solid debut! I am always easily drawn into mythology retellings and inspired stories, and this book was no exception. The characters were lovable and witty - I felt like cheering them on the whole time even when I had a good idea of how this book was going to end. 

Would recommend to anyone with a love for mythology and mystery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Pedophilia, and Slavery

shetland_pone's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I cried.

It's not perfect, but my only real complaint is the love triangle. Apart from that, it's wonderful.

TW: sexual abuse

Something I think the author wrote extremely well is Melantho's experiences and character. She's afraid of men. It's never said outright but you can see it in her behaviour. And it's nuanced. She knows Mathias isn't a bad person, she even comforts him at one point despite her distrust of him. Her feelings of guilt and pain were something I was able to relate to as someone who has experienced another type of sexual abuse. It felt healing to read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Sexual violence, and Death

hanne_'s review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.0

Gods, what a slog. Had one early moment with properly horrific use of familiar imagery (the feet, what else?), and then… kinda fell apart. This could’ve been sweet and lush, but tried to do too much with too little and was narratively all over the place. It’s a reimagining of how the Odys— okay, it’s not really doing that rigorously but it’s an intensely personal exploration of— nope, it’s one of those “monarchic inheritance acts like a reality show competition” books— but don’t worry, this YA love triangle’s *bisexual* and even drifting toward polyam— oh wait, now we’re doing the senselessly tragic nature of capital-F Fate— whoops, have two sudden twists… and it’s over. Exhausting. 

I think the author needed to pick one or two things to really commit to: the worldbuilding as an extension of The Odyssey, the consistency of the magic and plot elements she wanted to include, Leto and Melantho’s first-person voices (which started out refreshing and distinct but soon blended together), the three protagonists’ relationships, or the political/governing elements. Instead, the story rushes past each in turn in service of the others, and the only reliably well-developed element is actually… the violence? If you for some reason want to read a lot of detail about people, mostly children, being disturbingly murdered and assaulted, this is the book for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Gore, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual violence, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Mental illness, Rape, Suicide, Bullying, Classism, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

It’s not creepy if the centuries-old entity having sex with a young woman also looks and acts like a young woman, right? No, nope, wrong, absolutely creepy, and some memory loss to reduce the weight of her years of experience does not fix it.