Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

14 reviews

annakh16's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.5

Well, what can I say? I loved it. Forgive the long review, but I want to gush for a minute.

The pacing has improved a lot from the last book. I think this is partly due to each character getting more individual narration - they all got their due this time, other than Ling and Henry, but since they were the MCs of the last book it seemed only fair. I loved the

asexual rep

for Ling though. 

And the characters? They’re all my favourite. The banter between Sam and Jericho was hilarious. Memphis is truly a man after my own heart (“What, you don’t have a favourite librarian?!“). Isaiah is the sweetest as always, and

if anyone hurts either of them, I‘m gonna fucking riot. That “dark future“ the King of Crows was hinting at? Nothing doing. I simply won’t allow it

. Theta was great in this one, her story all heartbreaking and harrowing and powerful. Evie is more mature at last (I must admit I have a sweet spot for her). TS Woodhouse is randomly funny and I‘m here for it. 

There seems to be a dislike for Mabel in this review section and I don’t get it, maybe because I relate to her a bit. I enjoyed her storyline this book and

though she was always a likely character to die, she went out with a bang (see what I did there?). I‘m glad Bray did her justice

. 

Lastly, Bray never misses with new characters and Connor was no exception. His story had me right in the feels.

@Libba Bray: You had no right to kill him off like that. You had no right! (His and Will‘s death did seem slightly rushed, but the rapid succession also made for good tension)

. 

I love the fact that there were multiple villains, all bound up in the larger scheme but with very different motives. 

The King of Crows being a metaphor for

the “ghosts“ of America

? What a great idea, and well in line with the respect for diverse histories throughout this series. 

Bill Johnson‘s arc was really interesting, too. Moving back and forth between pity and disgust for him. I audibly gasped when

it was revealed he was only 37 years old!

. 

I was happy most key revelations came earlier in the book, as I‘d guessed most of them already. Was I the only one convinced though that

Sarah from Nebraska was Sarah Snow

? 

I heard that the last book in this series was a bit of a let down, and I really hope that’s not true. I‘m very curious how

the cliff hanger and all the tension from the end

will be resolved and am really looking forward to it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Murder

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Slavery, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Deportation

There are hints at child sexual abuse (by a priest), experienced by the character Connor, but this is never made explicit or discussed in detail. There is attempted sexual assault. There is also a memory of Theta being assaulted by Roy, written in second person (as in, you the reader feel like this or that).

ashdawn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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? No

5.0

It was so good! This book is way darker and sadder than the 1st 2 in the series. 😭😭😭😭 

It wrecked me. 

Also, this book had way more sexual content than the others

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Colonisation

maddiereadswords's review against another edition

4.5

Great news!! Even after reading this book three times and fully knowing what's coming, the ending of this book can still make me cry. It's fine, I'm totally fine.

This doesn't have the same creepy, haunting vibes as the first two books, and the two parts feel a little more disconnected to the point where I almost wish it had been two separate books (mostly because the back half in particular is so fast-paced and plot heavy that it really loses that spooky edge, and also partly because I selfishly can never get enough of these characters.) This is easily the darkest and most "adult" installment so far, and while it doesn't hit quite as hard as the first two for me, it's still an absolute powerhouse of a book that drags me through the full spectrum of human emotion every time I read it. <3

Also shout out to Ling Chan for being so autistic that she accidentally bypassed internalized homophobia, and to Miriam Lubovitch and Viola Campbell for being such milfs that they keep adopting fucked up children like Pokemon despite being held captive. I love women.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, and Deportation

charlie1995's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

5.0

Loved this book. Love Libba Bray. Love all these characters but Sam Lloyd is my absolute favorite at the moment. This carried the series so well and upped the stakes and the focus on eugenics and having that angry conversation as well as radical protestors and just. It’s so good. History driven fantasy is wonderful. The ghost story aspects are wonderful. Just loved it. Loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Violence, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Religious bigotry

Minor: Ableism, Gun violence, and Deportation

This book includes characters who are Black, Chinese, disabled, Jewish, and gay. There are minor characters who are LatinX, Black, and Jewish. Eugenics is a central conversation in the book. It is very strongly opposed.

allisonsmith120's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, and Antisemitism

Minor: Medical trauma

overbooked207's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense

• 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

📖 Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray Book Review 📖

2nd book of September 2022 and 28th of the year:

This was another great addition to the Diviners series with truly creepy moments, great mysteries, an amazing, lovable, and diverse cast of characters, important commentary and messages, the always beautiful found family trope, queer representation, disability representation, fantastic writing, and more! I think that Lair of Dreams is still my favorite of the three books I've read so far, but I still recommend the whole series as a whole and can’t wait to finish it hopefully soon! TW for death, violence, murder, mention of lobotomies and memory loss, discrimination, racism, antisemitism, eugenics, domestic abuse, blackmail, ableism, homophobia, alcohol, institutionalization, bomb/explosion, vomit, rape, sexual assault, gun violence, medical content/trauma, and grief📖🔮☠️🏳️‍🌈

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Alcohol

grexcarolinii's review against another edition

slow-paced

0.5

This probably would have been closer to a 2.5
but I had to take away 1 star for the incredibly triggering r*** scene written in second person - you know, just to add to the triggering effects (note: none of the rest of the book was written in 2nd person, nor has any of the previous novels. I can only assume the author did this to add to the disgust of the scene, so at best is exploitative and gross, at worst it's downright malicious). 

A second star taken away for just the casual mention of having a side characters love interest in Confederate costuming. For a book/series that likes to touch and try to wrestle with the problems of 1920s America - this felt so gross and tone death. How in the same book can you have the slaves of ghosts, references to the Jim Crows laws, and then just have a guy show up in Confederate uniform like it's just... fine?
No. Absolutely not. 

Add to this a host of kinda unlikeable characters, not a whole lot of plot for a 546 page book
And far, far too many really awkward gross sex scenes to boot... 

The half a star is literally for having a single Ace character, that's it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racism, Sexual content, and Antisemitism

Notably: the rape scene is written in second person

nienke's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Rape

bookswithjess's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Rape

Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Violence, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury