Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

A fost odată o inimă frântă by Stephanie Garber

24 reviews

bectothebooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious relaxing fast-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Violence, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Confinement and Injury/Injury detail

esme_may's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

The perfect flight companion :) it’s a quick read and I read it over a day with lots of downtime on a flight. Can’t wait for the next one!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Infidelity, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Classism

tak_everlasting's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

This feels like someone read The Cruel Prince and said "I could write that!"

Spoiler alert, Garber could not.

Every interesting aspect of this book has been done better elsewhere, and the whole thing felt like a collection of interesting premises that are never explored. There was no depth to the characters or their relationships, there is absolutely no set up and pay off, and the emotionally abused girl is villified. 

Defending the clunky writing style by saying that it's "YA" is an insult to young adult books everywhere. The writing style doesn't convey emotions well and holds back the story from reaching it's full potential, stripping the tension from many places by infodumping in the middle of action scenes, and skipping over any bonding time these characters may have had with one another. It's bad writing, and you can call it that. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Violence

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny mysterious 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

4.0

The first half of this book (about like the 1st 200 pages) I didn't really have too many high hopes for. It wasn't bad, but for the first half I could feel how YA this book is if you get what I mean. I just felt like the storyline wasn't really that interesting and that I just grew out of fantasy (this is my first fantasy book after I got back into reading last year). I didn't really see why it was so beloved. I was finding trouble imagining the characters. The descriptions. The world. I thought maybe fantasy just isn't for me anymore, but I'm so glad I continued it cuz it just went up from there. I was so invested and entertained. I'm so glad Stephanie didn't take the traditional route in terms of the relationships between Evangeline and Jacks. I was pretty entertained after the second half of the book and I can feel my love for fantasy start to sprout again. I'll definitely be reading the 2nd book and the 3rd that comes out later. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Blood

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, and Death of parent

kassidyreads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Blood

Minor: Confinement, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

saurahsaurus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

I liked it, and the the main character is overall fine, but I find the her naïveté and idealization of romance/“happily ever after“ to be really irksome. I can deal with an unreliable narrator, but she can be pretty silly…and it’s not endearing. Otherwise, I like her and Jacks’ dynamic and plan to read the next book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Body shaming, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Alcohol

elizlizabeth's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I would've loved this book when I was 16 tbh, but as it is, it was kinda weak. There were plenty plot points to keep things interesting, but the characters didn't have much substance and and fell into the tell rather than showing trap.  Evangeline was kind of annoying (calling herself ugly and undesirable while both plot and narrator show us that she's anything but), and at one point the events happening felt manufactured and self-indulgent from the author, per example:

there is a whole B plot where vampires are briefly introduced, despite them having only minimal importance moving forward, it spans for several chapters; cameos from characters from the author's other saga are also constant and while not vital to understanding the book, the appearances are framed as a wink WINK that doesn't add to the story.

I think for a fantasy book it lacked some depth, and sometimes it seems to sacrifice the themes for a good ol' shocking plot-twist. If you're on the younger-ish side an/or are on the look out for a quick read, this one's your book though.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, and Blood

The MC is rendered unable to move for a long-ish period of time, the feeling of entrapment is described in some detail.

queergoth_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-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

4.75

I enjoyed this book a lot. Like a lot a lot. I don't like to admit it out loud but I'm a bit of a hopeless romantic and this fed into that so well. It's got everything I love, fantasy and fairytale and romance. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Grief, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

laurajeangrace's review against another edition

adventurous fast-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

2.25

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent

karapillar's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail