Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

65 reviews

kell_xavi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

4.0

Well-told for the most part, with believable relationships, challenges, and emotions; however, some emotional events carry on a bit long, becoming repetitive and overwrought. I wasn’t convinced of how the plot comes together around the climax, finding too many threads dragged out only to collapse in a surprising moment. Still, Cashore’s girl-driven fantasy novel is mostly successful, smart and sincere, tinged with fear and a good dose of comeuppance to powerful men who do wrong.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

martin27's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful tense 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

The beginning drags on for quite a while, and the middle struck me as just being bland. The ending was very good though. Really everything after the introduction of Princess Bitterblue is good and the rest is not bad but didn’t interest me that much. I expected a much more complex magic system than what the Graces actually are, which is a vague concept that for some people is the ability to read minds or see the future and for others is just being able to swim sort of fast. The world building as a whole is very weak. In fact it’s the weakest point of the novel, I think. The author’s voice is unique and has promise but the world that Graceling is set in just doesn’t have any depth. 

It was fine and isn’t the worst book ever, but I’m not super committed to picking up any of the sequels. I will stress again that Katsa and Bitterblue have a great relationship that was really interesting, and I love that

Katsa, a woman who is committed to remaining childfree and unmarried, is not convinced that she actually did want children all along. Katsa loves kids and was very protective of Bitterblue, but that doesn’t mean she wants to have kids. It was a pleasant surprise to not have her shoved into a motherly role even when she has to take care of a kid for a third of the novel. Bitterblue is like a sister to her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Blood, Vomit, and Kidnapping

Minor: Misogyny, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

tigrelilje's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual content, Torture, and Murder

ava_ba's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.25

This book was outstanding I simply don’t care what anyone has to say, Katsa and Po were everything and Bitterblue deserves the planet

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

franksalot's review

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pedophilia and Vomit

talasterism's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.0

read this for winnow who learned abt sexism and uuf boy the beginning was so hard tk getinto but i loveeed the worldhuilding of graced and SURPRSINGLY good heterosexual romance bc po is so emotionally open wth!! the plot ran very smoothly and i loved the end too. its too heavy on sexism and pedophilia for me tho

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Pedophilia

Minor: Emotional abuse and Sexual content

imds's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child death

jo_d's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, and Sexual harassment

caseymac's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Low fantasy, romance

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Torture, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

delvainy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

4.25

This used to be one of my absolute favorite books growing up. I was putting off rereading it for a little while because I only own one book in the series (Fire), and I knew that after I read them I’d want to own all of them. When this was featured in a dream of mine, though, I finally bit the bullet, and it was as good as I remembered. The drama of it all! I don’t know that I would be shocked by the plot twists if I read it for the first time as an adult, but I don’t have to be surprised to appreciate the storytelling. It felt like a bit of a homecoming to reread this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death