Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

15 reviews

dragonaion's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

By the third book in most series, the story and it's characters begin to fall apart. A groove is lost and the story often falls of the rails. In the hero's journey, the hero simply continues to be amazing and fights another 'dragon' with ease. 
This is the third book of the series, but promises a beginning that I am dying to follow! This book is a hard read and many who have endured trauma will find themselves more in Celeana's shoes than they might ever want to admit. You will find her back at the beginning of the hero's journey, at her lowest and most defeated, rising from the ashes once more in a way so natural, you forgot this is a fantasy. Brace for impact, get lost in the words, and hold on tight for the ride to come! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Child abuse and Sexual content

coffiend's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Genocide, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Trafficking, and War

Several scenes of animal cruelty in detail towards

wyverns

, which are semi-domesticated and seem to have unique personalities. Related animal deaths, plus other wild animals, but those are mostly from hunting. Nothing bad happens to the dog.

helfire124's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

1.25

Out of the three Throne of Glass books I read I think this was the one I had the most mixed feelings on. I honestly think I could have rated it mid to high 2 stars if not for the ending. It’s actually that ending that’s made me decide to stop reading the series, if not forever than at least for a while. 

 

To start, I thought the intro was really strong. Celeana’s struggle with her past as a noble and the reality of who she’s become had a lot of potential. I thought it was fascinating to see how the last book ended with all this fear and tension around her reclaiming her place, only for her to get there and be overwhelmed by the past. I think this struggle makes for a great conflict for a main character, even if a bit basic. Not to mention, the exploration of her trauma and everything she’d been through was compelling. I think it really only fell short with the poor treatment of Nehemia as a dead BIPOC woman to motivate the white protagonist and almost everything about her dynamic with Rowen and their training. I felt like a lot of Celeana’s plot and build up was pushed aside to setup a budding romance between her and Rowen, which I couldn’t really get behind. I thought Rowen was an overly aggressive jerk and I just couldn’t find myself enjoying their dynamic. 

 

Back in the castle, I wasn’t overly interested in what Chaol had happening, but was very interested in Dorian. I thought he and Sorscha were super cute and I loved how he and Aedion played off each other. I honestly wish Dorian and Chaol’s plots had played on each other more and wove together DESPITE their interpersonal conflict. Forcing to characters with an already unsteady relationship together would be very compelling! 

 

The only other big plus I can give the book is the build to the climax, or what I assume was the climax. The big battle Celeana and Rowen had to go up against was interesting and actually had me excited. The build up to it was deeply haunting and captured a chilling atmosphere. I really felt the tension leading up to this fight. 

 

Outside of my already noted critiques, I think Manon’s plot was questionable. I didn’t feel like it had a good balance with everything else. Dorian and Chaol’s plot felt overshadowed by her’s. I didn’t think it was a level of detail needed (unless the later books aim to humanise the witches and provide them more moral complexity). I think finding a way to focus Dorian and Chaol’s plots around UNCOVERING these wyvern riders would establish solid tensions for the readers while having someone Celeana isn’t and CAN’T be aware off while allowing the boys more things to do. 

 

There was also an issues with the book seeming to have a weird interest in incest. It felt really weird how it kept narrowing in on Rowen and Celeana being cousins, despite also heavily leaning towards a romance between them. While not first cousins, Celeana referred to Rowen as her cousin more than once. Not to mention them both referring to the same woman as ‘aunt’ over and over and over. If you’re going to do a romance, don’t focus on how these two are related and share an aunt. It just left a weird taste in my mouth. 

 

Finally, the book should have ended two hours sooner. Once they recovered from the fight and Rowen had to struggle with his deal and Chaol and Dorian and Aedion had this hopeful plan to topple the King I think the book should have ended THEN picked up with these events at the start of book four. When I saw I had two hours left in the audiobook I actually almost started crying. I didn’t know what else it could do that would be compelling or interesting in two more hours. While it certainly continued to have a plot, I didn’t feel like it justified having the book carry on. I do think it could have been ended much sooner and would have had a much tighter plot and story. 

 

Overall, I do think this book had a lot of potential. However, it had just enough flaws to put me off from continuing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Animal death

tabea1409's review

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

allydoessomereading's review

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

Omg what a massive book in the TOG series! It took a while for me to get into this book with the switching perspectives (and so many different characters to focus on too) but I eventually got used to it and loved having so many different characters to explore. Like every Mass book, the last third is just chaos and action-packed but it just makes it so much fun to read! Loved this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

emilywemily6's review

adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Amazing!! I devoured this book and I can’t wait for the next one. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I thoroughly enjoyed following every perspective and am so excited to see where these characters go from here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Hate crime, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content and Medical content

liesthemoontells's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.25

My favourite entry in the series so far. The fantasy and worldbuilding is much more mature than in the first two books. While the pacing sometimes faltered a little bit with the array of characters going back and forward, the widened scope and perspective was welcome.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Slavery and Vomit

im_eebee's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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

Almost perfect. I just felt like some of the POV’s just made it drag horribly. But overall my favorite book in the series by far

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

This is my favorite book so far. It’s so emotional and so many things are revealed, and it just breaks your heart. Manan is a favorite of mine and I love Aedion.

The emotional journey Celaena goes through in this book is so good. I feel like I was on a rollercoaster in the best way. The side characters feel like main characters as we dig deeper into their stories. I can’t wait to see where the story goes from here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, and War