Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

36 reviews

kdegroote905's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Genocide

frmeden's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Blood, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying and Sexual content

Minor: Death of parent

cloud_of_eden's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.0

eh. another mid one for me. the prose is gorgeous but i didn’t care about the characters enough to want to root for them

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Colonisation

Minor: Sexism and Suicide

callistag1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Classism

Minor: Ableism, Vomit, and War

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Infertility, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

stardust_heidi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.75

I have no idea how to rate this book. I listened to the audiobook. Saskia Maarleveld did an amazing job, as per usual. But the story itself... It was fine? I think part of it was what usually happens when I listen to fantasy on audiobook (for the first time) -- I miss a lot as I go about my day. And I'm fairly slumpy right now. But at the same time, it lacked something that made me look forward to listen to it every day. I think the story was solid enough for me to keep going, for sure, but not enough to love it. It was very gruesome and dark, so beware. The romance was not particularly moving, but I like how they connected by the end. The mythology and lore parts of the story are pulled from is interesting. 

I liked it okay but definitely won't reread it. I'm hoping Ava Reid's other books are better. 😬

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

chrispybacon's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

The book had a strong premise but poor execution. I was excited to have a heroine in her mid-twenties but Evike is so dumb I could not relate to her at all. None of her relationships are healthy - the Yehuli want her to convert (they also help her but they are very interested in her joining them), her love interest is a coward and also her jailer, her whole village physically and verbally abused her. Her life was shit and I would have left all of them in the dirt. It makes zero sense to return to her abusers. 
The plot is a lot of walking, being horny, being angry, being horny, plans backfiring, suffering deadly injuries but surviving them, more being horny and more walking. Somewhere in there were aspects of accepting yourself, growing into your powers (and loosing them), and conflicts about religions and cultures clashing which suffered greatly under all the rest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

maresuju's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War

anastasiadreaming's review against another edition

challenging dark tense 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? It's complicated

2.0

I really wanted to love this one, and unfortunately it didn’t work out. I’m granting one star for the atmosphere, and another for Gáspár, but I’m stripping three for how nonsensical Évike’s decision-making was. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

fuitfortuna's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.75

Mixed feelings on this one. 

I really liked the world building, it was interesting and I could tell that the author was really knowledgeable about the folklore that inspired the world and the magic system was intriguing.

My problems lie everywhere else. While Reid certainly is talented I often found some of the writing repetitive, the author would find a phrase she liked and rinse it multiple times within 5 pages and at times i found it very difficult to power through - i actually put the book down for almost two months when i reached the halfway point because i had no motivation to continue. 

And that’s not even to mention how this almost felt like a YA masquerading as an adult? Evike is supposed to be 25 but spends most of the book acting like she’s 16. I have no real basis for this but there were multiple times where the vibes were just incredibly YA.

The pacing was also a large issue for me the first half of the book almost moved too slow and the second half moved way too fast.

The book really started to pick up once they reached the city and then it felt like events were flying by. This was really unfortunate as once we meet Katalin once again and have the big battle (for some reason?) it feels so unearned that I just didn’t really care.

I also have some conflicted thoughts on the romance. I’d heard it was more of an enemies-to-lovers type of deal and to not expect it to be the main focus of the story. And while they were certainly enemies at the very start by virtue of their backgrounds, the romance actually felt very insta-love to me,

with little development as to why they’d grown to care for each other. Though I agree that the romance should not be the main thing you focus on, it’s difficult not to when Evike is horny for Gaspar on like every page.

The epilogue left me very unfulfilled, while I could understand how Evike longed to belong somewhere and loved Keszi despite her difficult history I do not understand why she would have chosen to go back there when like every single person there was terrible to her at best and actively abusive at worst.

Overall I was quite disappointed as I expected to like this a lot more than I actually did, perhaps I just built it up too much in my head. However I did still enjoy most of the book and would read some of the authors other works.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racism, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War