Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Mad Ship by Robin Hobb

23 reviews

lentzar's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, and Trafficking

Moderate: Rape and War

bebby92's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual violence, and Violence

stripeyworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

WOW. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

The topic is heavy but handled well.

atalea's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

The Liveship Traders is slowly becoming one of my all-time favourite series. Robin Hobb's character work is some of the best out there and this series really highlights that. All the characters undergo interesting developments in a natural way and you've got to love/hate her villains. I don't know how she does it,  but I loved (almost) all the characters in the book and wasn't interested in all of the POV's.

Between the two, I do prefer Ship of Magic over Mad Ship because I felt more was happening in that book. In Mad Ship we take a slower pace. Mysteries of the world are slowly being unraveled. Most of the book felt like set-up for the conclusion of the story and focused instead in character development. I don't mind a slow burn (I mean that's Hobb in a nutshell), but it was only 3/4 into the book that things started going down, so it dragged a bit.

I am very interesting to see how Hobb will bring everything together in the end and can't wait to start the final book in this trilogy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug abuse, and Infidelity

mvanhaas's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Rape, Slavery, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Sexual violence, Slavery, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism

kitausu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

talonsontypewriters'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Medical content, Trafficking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Ableism, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Classism

Sexual coercion, abuse of power; victim blaming/rape culture (challenged), complicity in assault and abuse. Descriptions of sexual abuse and rape in captivity as well as the aftermath thereof, but no graphic scene; attempted rape and discussion thereof in one scene. Withdrawal. Illness, epidemic. Earthquakes. Relationships between adult men and pre-teen/teenage girls, as well as allusions to relationships between adult women and teenage boys.

alexhaydon's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Rape and Sexual violence

genny's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

5.0

Guhhh.This was just excellent. The full truth about the dragons was slowly unveiled throughout the story; I already understood some of the links from the last book but everything came to light here (The Ringsgold chapter was masterful!). A+ character development, as expected...

• Malta. Never have I felt the urge to slap a child as strongly as when I read her POV - but that somehow changed and now all I want is to protect her. I actually feel bad for wishing she would learn a lesson. What?! 😆 I suspect I'll grow infinitely more fond of her in the next book.
• Out of all the "people" to be mad at, I found myself annoyed at Vivacia. And then eventually at Wintrow as well, because I hate that they're
  siding with Kennit. I understand why, but I still hate it.
  Props to Hobb for making me accept a character's motivations even though I disagree with them.
• I love all of the Vestrits, but I especially love Keffria and Ronica's brand of quiet yet unwavering resolve. This, after being so irritated by Keffria's naivety in Ship of Magic. Haha.

There's more but I don't want to turn this into an essay on every character. Suffice to say that I love reading about them all (though I can't get over the ickiness of Reyn and Malta's age gap). I'm already sad that there's just one book left - these characters have imprinted themselves onto my heart. And they're not the only good thing about the book! There's worldbuilding, atmosphere, plot threads sewn together flawlessly. 🥰 It's a long read, but not one page was wasted IMO!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

podanotherjessi's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.25

I literally wrote an essay about this book to send to the friends I read it with, so let me parse that down to a spoiler-free review...

The pacing drags in the middle of this book, but the ending makes up for it some.
The characters are fantasic. They're all comples, and they go through such amazing growth. I've seen some of the best character arcs in this series, and there's still one more book to go.
There are wonderful themes in this book that are fun to explore and think about. Slavery is handeled from many angles in a complex way. Identity is a constant struggle, and there's a lot of elements about control in different ways.
I really loved this book, and if it hadn't been so slow, it would be rated higher. Can't wait to finish the trilogy!

Characters: 10
Plot: 7
Setting: 9
General appeal: 8
Writing style: 9
Originality: 9
Ending: 8

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Medical content, and Grief