Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

6 reviews

ribbonquest's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense

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

3.5

More brutal violence than I was expecting and incredibly anime feeling. Everyone represents an animal, Fruits Basket zodiac style, and have different rainbow hair colors. The cast is very diverse, which flips back and forth between contrived and just a sign of how screwed up this world/system of governance is.

The youngest passenger is an adorable six-year-old so if "child on murder boat" raises any red flags for you, look into content warnings or just skip this one.

It's engaging but not for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Ableism

justinekorson's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

I've wanted to read this ALL YEAR and it was just as good as I heard it would be!!! I, at first, was so in denial of all the murders (for obvious Ravi and Eudora reasons) that I was CONVINCED that that none of it was real?? Or like a ploy to get all the Dux's to be civil with one another? But as the story kept going I realized that, yes all of these people were actually dead. I think the deaths that upset me the most were Shinjiro and Jasper (only because he was a literal child. he was kind of an awful person). (I was also really sad when Leo died even though he was also a prick. I just felt bad for the situation that led him to do all that). I expected more of them to survive for some reason but when Cordelia's plan was revealed it all made sense in the end (sadly). I was really glad Tendai and Yewande managed to escape mostly unscathed though and I'm still mourning a little the death of Wyatt??? I was so in love with the Wyatt version of Ravi that when he revealed himself I was so shocked. There were a TON of clues though now that I'm thinking back on all of it. Overall it was such a mind bobbling story because every character I suspected died almost immediately after. I can't wait to read more books from this author!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

paschal's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-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

book. It’s supernatural crossed with Agatha Christy mystery and the result is a beautiful child (book). I think I accused almost every character in the book before the finish. There’s a nice little romance thrown in for good measure. True that it soon has a murder…..then more murders but I did not feel like the characters were damned, more like in a bad place at a bad time. The characters are well developed and some are more lovable than others but that’s what makes a good book. No obvious villain and plenty of twists. I enjoyed it tremendously and recommend it without reservation. 

I appreciate the Advanced Copy to Review from Harlequin and this is my honest opinion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Murder

Sexual diversity is a minor theme

evarinya's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

Somehow the most interesting premise managed to end up getting worse chapter by chapter... Similar to the MC, I'm afraid.
I liked trying to figure out the mystery, but then when it was resolved it felt like there was no way a reader (or, well, me) could have actually figured out what happened with the information that was given.
Also there were some really contrived bits I strongly disliked.
At least some scenes were cute and/or funny, though.

Grasshopper is actually so cute/funny!

It was cool to see that there was a bunch of diversity throughout the book, but [heavy spoilers]

that every genderqueer person died at the end left a really stale taste for me. I mean, great, the woman liking women and two of the gay/bi men survived, but the trans man as well as the nonbinary person died in the stupidest ways (imho)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit and War

sarahna's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ceredonia's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Overall a great story. Took some time to get used to the 'modern' language in this type of setting. Some of the plots got a bit convoluted but it came together well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Genocide, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail