Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling

8 reviews

fanboyriot's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Read For:

✓ Witches 

✓ Mystery Plot

✓ Good Friends 

✓ LGBTQIA+ Characters

✓ Witch Hunter (we hate you)

˗ˏˋ ★ REVIEW ★ ˎˊ˗

I have mixed feelings about this book but ultimately it was an entertaining read.  I liked the magic and the mystery of who the hunter was.  The friendships were also really nice for the most part.  And the one friendship I was rightfully cautious about ended how I expected.

I wasn’t a big fan of Veronica and all the relationship drama she brought to Hannah’s life.  The character development was good though with how Veronica changed by the end but she was pretty toxic at some parts of this book.  The ending though really annoyed me.  I know there is a second book which I’ll be reading but this ending felt too incomplete with having the witch hunter not be caught.

Spice Level: (it’s mentioned)

Angst Level: 💧💧💧

POV: First Person

Release Date: 28, May 2019

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Biphobia, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gore, Hate crime, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal death and Sexism

_nem_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture and Blood

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

patienceholmes's review against another edition

emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-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

Loved this reading.  Magic and covens with sapphic riddled through out - including not only the MC’s first ex gf but also another budding potential love interest.  

Unexpected villians and betrayals left me shocked and I’m so glad I own the second as ill be reading it asap. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

solarel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I’ll give this one a flat 3 out of five enjoyment from me. Honestly the first half felt gimmicky and flat. It was a lot, and I mean a lot, of telling not showing. Often times repeatedly. 

But! The second half really picked up and once the pieces all fell into place the story actually took hold. The stakes increased with every mistake and Hannah’s reactions felt very real. I don’t cry for books often and twice I was tearing up. 

For a YA some of the silly teen-isms are to be expected. I’m glad I pushed through to read the second half. It was fun. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Biphobia, Genocide, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, and Alcohol

ka_ke's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

These Witches Don’t Burn is a fun read. It has excellent LGBTQIA+ representation and quite the diverse cast of characters. It’s an excellent pallet cleanser between heavier books and the speed makes it easy to get through. That being said, it is very simple and borderline predictable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Death of parent, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

emilyrainsford's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

Sometimes I think there needs to be two categories of YA. You know how some YA features teenagers running around alone, saving the world and acting twice their age, and then other YA is more of the "ZOMG I'm totes gonna get grounded by mummy and daddy" variety?? I'd say this definitely leans more towards the latter, although I don't mean this as a bad thing. It would be pretty silly to get annoyed that a YA book features teenagers acting like teenagers. 

My overall impression of this book was that is was a perfectly fine story. There's nothing I hate, but equally there's nothing that really got me excited or made me want to gush over it. It was a pretty solid "okay". There's lots of queer rep from an #ownvoices author so that's great to see.  There's plenty of very teenagery relationship angst and perhaps a bit less magic than I might have hoped for, but the plot moves along at an enjoyable pace. It's a pretty quick, easy read, and I think if you go into with the right expectations, you'll enjoy it just fine.  

It ends pretty much in the middle of the story, so warning for the cliffhanger averse! I'll probably pick up the second one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Medical trauma