Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

18 reviews

breeoxd's review against another edition

• 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

4.0

I get that this series has its issues, and that some writing choices are mind-numbing and just plain odd, but I sat down and read this 700 page book in two sittings. Troublesome or not, it swept me away and didn’t let me up until the last page. I am deeply disappointed in Morrigan’s resolution, or lack thereof. I hope that if the series continues, she gets more character growth and less trauma. Also, there is no way in hell any kiddo should read this. I’m a sex positive person, but would be seriously pissed if my early teen grabbed this fantasy book from the library when it’s essentially light erotica. But I am decidedly NOT a teen, and enjoyed it a bunch ;)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Sexual content, War, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit and Biphobia

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

josiee's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Medical trauma, Biphobia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Colonisation, Cursing, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Blood, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Stalking, War, Ableism, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexism, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit

zc2's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

• Okay it put me in a pretty big reading slump not gonna lie. Like i picked up to other books in an attempt to get me to keep reading it. But the plot was so tense at certain points that it kept me interested. I did hate that the whole book was centered on war and politics like i could’ve cared less. Why did it take them 700+ pages for the war to happen in the last 200. I was not amused. Even though we hate Tampon i would like to give him a hug for being lonely now. Like it wasn’t his fault he had attachment issues well maybe it was but i don’t know if i would want him to drop his roll as high lord of the spring court to go be with luicien at velaris. But also how is Az and Luic gonna fall in love with Elain like im dancing on the edge ready to find out. What else are they to face now that hybern is gone ??? Idk if I’ll continue reading or not havent decided yet.overall it was an okay book I wouldn’t 100% recommend it though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Dysphoria, Grief, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, War, Alcohol, Body horror, Drug use, Kidnapping, Vomit, Animal death, Biphobia, Body shaming, Cannibalism, and Death

dalek_caan's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

This book was amazing. I have no complaints whatsoever. Amazing characters. Well thought out plot. Beautiful wrap-up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Gore, Torture, Violence, War, Body horror, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Biphobia, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia

prasi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.75

I feel like the more I've read this series the more I've sort of drifted away from it. Rereading this book being a few years older I've realized how god awful some of the scenes are. It seemed like Maas was still trying to decide how explicit she wanted to go with this series because the language she used when writing the sex scenes was descriptive, yet still disturbingly censored. Like she wanted to avoid the 'fade to black' scene but couldn't fully commit to just saying what she meant, so instead she used flowery non-descriptive descriptions to get around it. I mean, some of these sentences don't even make sense and yet 400k people rated this book 5 stars so clearly they didn't notice.

And there was zero chemistry. It's like they went from this fiery, happy, romantic couple who are constantly bickering (in the snarky flirty way) and shouting their undying love for each other literally from the tops of mountains to... having emotionless sex every 10 pages? Idk... Where was the substance? 

All of this made the 'action' or plot part of the book feel more like a side-plot to Rhys and Feyre's sexy times. There was no real build-up to it and everything about it felt rushed and uncharacteristic. 

There was also something about the way Rhys was presented in this book that just started giving me the ick. He's always been a sort of Gary Stu character to me but still seemed ok? There was a balance he had with Feyre that worked for them even though he was *too* perfect. But there were several points in this book where he just had no personality at all and rolled over like a housepet. Where is the passion and ferocity and snark he brought in ACOMAF? 

Maas could have replaced Rhysand with a pool noodle and I probably wouldn't have noticed.

And the way she portrays Tamlin in this book makes me feel like she's turned him into a plot device to make Feyre and Rhys closer. I'd always felt like Tamlin magically changed personalities in the middle of ACOTAR for no discernible reason, but ACOWAR really cements how I'm feeling about that. It's like she develops these characters we care about and then decides part way through the story to completely change their personality with zero reasoning behind why it happened. 

I was not impressed with this reread.

Original 2019 5-Star Review

Spoiler

This is one of those books that had me giggling like a little girl the entire time I was reading it. I smiled like an idiot, laughed, and damn near threw the book across the room. It's rare that a book pulls so much emotion from me while I'm reading it, but ACOWAR brought back all the familiar feelings of reading a book with characters I absolutely love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Lesbophobia and Biphobia

Most of this is pretty self-explanatory - but the lesbophobia content warning is due to how Maas portrayed Mor in this book. It almost felt like she tried to rush and write-in some diversity but the way this was done was both sloppy and shows extremely poor representation. Maas again wrote scenes that felt out-of-character to (this time) diversify her characters. And in doing so, she made them look like awful people. It's a bad choice to write your lgbt+ characters as bad stereotypes and it's also a bad choice to suddenly make a character lgbt+ several books into a series after making it look like they might start a hetero relationship. In the case of Mor, she also never told anyone about it? Even Rhys? Even though they've been friends for literally hundreds of years? It feels like a last minute add-on to the book for the sake of queerbaiting and I'm not buying it.

jenna_justi2004's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Sexism, Sexual content, Drug use, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Blood, Gore, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Classism, Biphobia, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Alcohol, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, and War

chocolatebooksthunderstorms's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

 I loved ACOTAR. I loved ACOMAF. But as soon as I cracked open A Court of Wings & Ruin after ACOMAF’s nasty cliffhanger, I was bored.

(ACOMAF spoilers ahead.)

One of the things I adore about this series is its discussion of trauma. Our cast has trauma and that is something the story actively deals with: the sleepless nights, the physical effects, the mental struggles. But, from the first page of A Court of Wings & Ruin, our heroine’s trauma and relevant flaws are stripped away. Forgotten. Coming to terms with trauma is what drew Feyre and Rhys together. I don’t expect them to cling to their trauma by any means (no one should ever have to experience that). But, for survivors, trauma is not just about overcoming. It’s about dealing with the memories/feelings/effects every single day. It’s about showing up, even after healing. As much as ACOMAF discussed overcoming trauma, A Court of Wings & Ruin forgot about it.

Then, there’s the matter of the ACOMAF cliffhanger, and where it left our heroine. A Court of Wings & Ruin begins a short time after ACOMAF. But this book is not about Feyre. It’s about Vengeful Feyre, Warrior Feyre, Sister Feyre, Ruler Feyre. Every unique and miniscule facet of Feyre is stripped away in the name of a boring, overly powerful faerie queen in pursuit of revenge. And this book is LONG.

It sounds like I’m hating on ACOTAR now, but I promise, I still love the series. A Court of Wings & Ruin gave me a newfound appreciation for Cassian, Elain, and all the monsters locked in cages. For me, this was a 3.5-star read. And A Court of Wings & Ruin isn’t where the story ends.

TW: graphic war, violence; moderate sexual assault, sexual content, murder; minor biphobia 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Murder, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Biphobia

booksandteatime's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Violence, Vomit, and Sexism

Minor: Biphobia

arys_library's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

Amazing! Second favorite in the series now, mist and fury being first. It is more plot and war based than character based which I didn’t think I would love as much as I did. I’m not one for battle scenes, reading them can be tough to get through, but I loved these. They were so descriptive and made me feel like I was watching it through a screen. Didn’t think war would be one of my favorite things about the book but the writing was just perfect. And the character building; even with less character building focus, it was amazing. It was found family mixed with actual blood family and it was beautiful. Amazing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Genocide, War, Violence, Body horror, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Vomit, Child death, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Biphobia, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Death of parent, Homophobia, and Infidelity

egurgens's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

I felt so many emotions when I read this. The book begins with Feyre being the fox among chickens, where she schemes and plots and tears apart the Spring Court, after both Tamlin and Ianthe betrayed her. When Feyre is satisfied, she returns to the Night Court, where they have to deal with the after effects of the misadventure on Hybern. What follows is lots of war prep, alliances, feelings, and WAR. 

This was so good, I greatly enjoyed this story. I’m looking forward to more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Grief, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Biphobia, Classism, Colonisation, Genocide, Sexual content, Slavery, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Stalking, Child death, Toxic friendship, and Child abuse