Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Das begabte Kind by Juno Dawson

28 reviews

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

4.0

The book opens the night before five young girls officially become witches. The story then jumps and follows these same characters now that they’ve matured into their more powerful and responsible lives. 

The author does a great job at showing the different personalities, not so easy when there are a lot of characters. The women are no longer close like in childhood; there’s friction between the power-hungry head of England’s coven, the mild witch who pretends to be a simple housewife, the Black lesbian who started her own LGBTQ-friendly coven, and the veterinarian consumed with grief at the loss of her fiancé during the witch war eight years ago. There are spouses and lovers and children and parents and, new to the group, a trans orphan who’s terrified and lashing out in fear. The story is told from four points of view and the voices are distinct. 

I read reviews where the readers felt the race and gender issues overshadowed the story. I thought the author raised really important points relevant to current racism, homophobia, and transphobia. The transphobia was heavy-handed but it seemed realistic given what I read online. 

I liked it enough where I’m about to start the second in the series. I want to see what happens to these people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Bullying, Classism, Mental illness, Murder, Outing, Racism, Blood, Abandonment, Death, Gore, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Transphobia, and Grief

kaceyjoy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Outing, Violence, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Torture, Animal death, Transphobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, and Body shaming

katharina90's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I enjoyed the themes, like the politics and dynamics at play among the covens and witchy parts of society, but the plot really didn't wow me. It was a little boring. 

The book has LGBTQ and BIPOC rep but I would have liked for Theo to play a bigger, more active part in the story.

I listened to the audiobook and Aiofe McMahon is a favorite narrator so that helped get me through the book when the story dragged.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Fatphobia, Confinement, Violence, Racism, Death, Murder, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Ableism, Infidelity, and Abandonment

flashandoutbreak's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Violence, Dysphoria, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Abandonment, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, War, and Outing

themahtin's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

TW: Transphobia is a major plotline. There's a young trans witch and one of the middle-aged ones believes that the young one is the prophesied witch who's going to like end the world or whatever. There are lots of diverse characters -- it's nice to see that their friend group from their time as witches in training is still together -- and the book is very well-written, but it was very hard to tolerate the transphobia .

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Abandonment

bookhoe1's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Violence, War, and Abandonment

shannenscribbles's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Child abuse, Bullying, Animal death, Transphobia, Toxic friendship, Torture, and Abandonment

sashahc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

“Her Majesty’s Royal Coven” by Juno Dawson is modern fantasy in England with hidden communities of witches and warlocks that are known to the highest government but no one else.  Four old friends have gone their own ways, practicing magic in different contexts.  Elle is a housewife, Niamh has become a country vet, Leonie has created a coven centering diasporic PoC and Helena remains the only one working for the government in HMRC, now High Priestess.  Niamh is asked to mentor some young magic users, including Theo, a traumatized and powerful young person who may be prophesied to destroy HMRC.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Abandonment, and Death

atamano's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Transphobia, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Homophobia, Child abuse, Colonisation, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, War, Blood, and Violence

Minor: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, and Cursing

hazelgirl21's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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 and Transphobia

Minor: Child abuse and Abandonment