Reviews tagging 'Grief'

These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling

55 reviews

karly_ackley's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

annorabrady's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

This book went in many different directions. I almost DNF'd at the beginning then the story started to pick up. And I got into it until I got blindsided by

the parental death. As someone who unexpectedly lost their mom in the last year, that definitely threw me back into the trauma

. 

Overall, I'm not sure how I feel about the story. I gave it a 3 because it was entertaining enough. But this isn't one I am going to revisit. 

If you have emotional triggers, be aware and proceed with caution. This hits on a lot of things that could get people. I've done my best to list the ones I can remember. 

As an aside, this book is not diverse. Beyond the romance and the ex, there's one closeted character who gets little page time and one gay character who gets an even smaller part. Then there's nothing. Everyone is white. If there aren't white characters, they're not described. In real life, Salem has close to 18% of their population identifying as latine and nearly 4% as black. Surely there could have been a friend, family member, or other recurring character who wasn't white. 

After giving myself time to think about it, I genuinely don't understand the purpose of killing off her father beyond shock value. It didn't add anything to the story. She learned nothing new – he died while trying to give her a clue but didn't actually say anything – and her actions didn't change.

It also would have made more sense narratively if he hasn't died, especially in terms of Victoria being left alone after getting her magic back. 

Hannah would have saved Victoria regardless of her father's death. She was just as invested in the identity of the witch hunter before and after his death. And his death didn't add to any of her struggles or character development. He just died. And then he had a funeral. And she said she was upset about it.

Losing a parent changes you. Especially if it's a parent you have a good relationship with. It fundamentally changes so much of your life, your beliefs, and your priorities. And I saw none of that reflected in what Hannah did at the end of the book. Hannah was still the same character, she was just down a parent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

unicornofthesea's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

agnela's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

laurenlo29's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Murder

koraisreadingnow's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

4.75

If not for Veronica's character bugging the complete shit out of me, i would have given this book a 5 out of 5. I normally don't cry at books (especially when my suspicions were confirmed) so this one really surprised me. I already got the second book, beside me so i'm excited to read more!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Genocide, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal death, Gun violence, Kidnapping, and Outing

sophie42's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Murder and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Biphobia, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

wishbea's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

The characters weren't very compelling, the magic was interesting and story was okay but Veronica is abusive, manipulative and hypocritical and I hated reading about her, and because Hannah isn't over her ex, she spends a lot of time thinking about Veronica.

Many of the characters are stupid, including Hannah herself and every single responsible adult character that just let Hannah and Veronica wander about and do whatever they want despite the danger to their lives. Gemma's dialogue in particular got worse as the book went on, becoming extremely generic, Morgan was fine but it felt like she was just there to make the point of not all insert group of people only portrayed as being terrible up to this point are bad.

I will happily praise how this book deals with a teenager grieving though, it felt realistic, you can tell how raw Hannah is at that point and her actions are driven by those feelings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Biphobia, Cursing, and Stalking

sapphic_in_the_stacks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Grief, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

bloomingdruid's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Kidnapping, and Car accident

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Medical content, and Lesbophobia