Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

6 reviews

kassidyreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Grief, Abortion, and Alcohol

caitrisriding's review

This was awful world building, none of it made sense the way the author set up this world and story. The bigger con for me was the constant awfulness in this story, scenes of having sex with slaves, raping and murdering women, and child rape. It was disgusting and there was no way I was going to continue reading this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Rape

Moderate: Child death and Sexual content

jo_cbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

First of all, this definitely shouldn’t be YA lol it is a bit too explicit and graphic, much better suited as New Adult or Adult but💁🏻‍♀️

I really enjoyed this book. I expected it to be 100% high fantasy but I liked the more dystopian aspect to it since I love history and we get to see a lot of that explored throughout the book. I did find that it was unclear for most of the book why exactly the crossing happened outside of the desire for a utopia but then I wondered how William Tear could’ve convinced people to come with me? I think answering that question should have happened earlier in the book rather than 3/4 of the way through. 

Kelsea (I found the name a bit distracting cuz it was the only super modern sounding one out of all the characters) is a great MC. I appreciated being able to watch her grow into the queen and being able to see her internal processing of balancing who she is a person and how she as a queen needs to be. I loved seeing the relationship between  her and Mace develop; it may not be friendship but I think it is far more important than that

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Trafficking

Moderate: Addiction and War

addiemae09's review against another edition

adventurous funny inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, and War

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Some aspects of the worldbuilding was absolutely wonderful and clever! Kelsea is a complex and compelling heroine. But all this was overshadowed by a positively glaring lack of anyone not of caucasian English (possibly a little Scottish or Irish?) descent. Despite everyone in the Tearling being refugees of Britain and America. It was incredibly uncomfortable to just pretend a couple stray POC who don’t even stay longer than a page exist in the Tearling, and only got worse when slave trafficking became a big part of the plot. In addition, every historic English caricature lobbed against the French was copy/pasted against the Mort in the laziest way imaginable. It felt like the author wanted to make a commentary on imperialism, without any introspection whatsoever on which countries have had the furthest imperialist reach or what that looks like. I wanted to like this book but too many things kept jarring me from the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sarahholliday's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

This was a re-read for me, so that I could finally get around to reading the final book in the trilogy (which I've put off for years, for reasons unknown). 

The book is as thrilling & engaging as I remember, and unique mixture of fantasy and dystopian literature. 

I noticed a few inconsistencies this time around, and I think the series as a whole works better than any of the individual books. This first installment at least falls into the category of "a few characters of color, but pretty much all white people with people of color on the margins." 

I do love Kelsea as a protagonist, though. Watching her come into her own, gaining confidence in her ability to rule, and relying on the extensive education she was given in order to make thoughtful decisions is a particularly satisfying element of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Grief

Moderate: Drug use