Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Extasia by Claire Legrand

20 reviews

ghostiestar's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

amris's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War

aseel_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

2.5

Kind of odd to mix a super patriarchal society/witches with a dystopian type of world. Not really sure how I feel about that. I liked the witchy and queer elements of it but the overall plot wasn't as smooth as It could have been. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

sav_22's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I very much enjoyed this book. I would describe it as Fear Street 1666 meets handmaid’s tale meets Ethel Cain’s Preachers Daughter. This is very much a deep dive into processing systemically rooted oppression of women, and explores the craving for justice to the extreme. I think if you like June  (Handmaids tale) as a protagonist, you’d enjoy many of these characters. My main gripe is

the underland plot twist. Unless there is a sequel she meant to set up to justify that plot point and further explore, then imo it just as easily could have been removed and replaced with them finding out that the devil is just a symbol of people that assert misery and domination over others or something.

  the pacing was also a weakness but overall it’s an interesting concept and a compelling read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, and Abandonment

jokehelldo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

2.75

Ending fucked everything up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

annamorgan27's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Murder

storykeeper_saga's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Blood

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

 

I'd rate this higher if it wasn't for the constant sexual content of minor characters :/

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Self harm

Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

Honestly there is so much heavy stuff in this book it'd be impossible to list it all, this book is not for the feint of heart and if any of the tw's contain a trigger of yours I'd advise to steer clear from the book, it's a good book but it's extremely heavy and disturbing

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

I was so excited to read this because I loved Sawkill Girls but this book did not work for me.

First of all I think it's kind of cowardly to set this book in the context it winds up being set in and not explicitly make the cult religion Christianity. The society isn't described particularly well; the book is so long and drags on but so many things are glossed over so there's not much of an idea what their everyday life is like. I kind of wish that Amity had had a few "normal" visitations and other duties as a saint before it all hit the fan.

The characters are all cardboard cutouts (the only one I found mildly interesting was the

second POV character

and she's only in a couple of chapters near the end), the witches feel pointless (their entire role could easily have been fulfilled by other characters who were already present) and the romance is very silly.

The magic system isn't well set up and basically just works however the plot needs it to. The plot itself just does whatever to get to the next point - I never understood why Amity was so set on meeting the devil in the first place.

Also it's annoying going into a book that says it's about revenge and righteous anger and then having the message be that we need to be nice to bigots because maybe they don't know that racism and misogyny are bad. I almost wish racism hadn't come up at all because it's handled so clumsily

- there are like 3 (marginally) important Black characters because the founders of Amity's cult were white supremacists, but of those characters 1 dies and 1 is a villain, and since Amity only even found out Black people existed like last week the cult's racism isn't super plot relevant. Two different revolutions happen basically off page so the author doesn't have to try and explain how they did that without hurting anyone's feelings.

Also the sequel hook was stupid. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Vomit, and War

archaicrobin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

I was a little weary after hearing this was YA because every YA I read usually ends up being some cliche love triangle filled with tropes, so I was happily surprised when Extasia was so visceral and original. 

Set in a misogynistic utopia of the future called Haven, Amity is a devout follower of God, even allowing herself to be beaten weakly to atone for her womanly sins. However, once she stumbles upon a coven in the woods and her own powers, Amity starts to realize that everything she once believed is a lie. 

Extasia does not shy away from the horror in Haven, and at times I had to remind myself that yes even though I just read about someone’s bones being snapped in half this is a YA book! It was genuinely eerie and disturbing, and the characters were not only lovable but diverse! So much representation in this book, and it’s done so well. 

I highly recommend this one! Only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars, is because towards the end the story tends to drag on and I feel like it could have ended much 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism