Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Die verborgenen Stimmen der Bücher by Bridget Collins

56 reviews

coffee_and_wool's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Outing, Suicide, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Child death, Classism, Incest, and Pedophilia

spiderlilies's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.5

It's a little slow to start with in part I, even though I love the premise of books being stories cut out of people's memories. Emmett isn't a very strong-willed person and much of the plot simply happens to him, while he gets pushed around and most of his protestation is limited to internal dialogue. 

Part II, however, made me absolutely fall in love with the story although it becomes clear from there that this is not so much a grand story with a plot that will shift the whole binding world, but rather a more focused romance story. And I loved the romance. It had an enemies to lovers feel to it and the banter between Emmett and Lucian was a joy to read. Though be warned that the story gets pretty dark. There are a number of scenes with extremely homophobic reactions from their parents and Lucian's father is an all-around disgusting human. 

Part III gets even darker as we get to Lucian's POV and see what kind of person he had the potential of being without the influence of part II. This is where the story picks up the pace and grows even more tense, with murders, arranged marriages, and missing memories all working against our protagonists. I finished this part in one setting, because I had to know how it was going to end. Great read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Suicide

Moderate: Murder, Rape, Homophobia, and Physical abuse

Minor: Pedophilia

paper_bound's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Gaslighting, and Animal death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child death, and Rape

dananana's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Child death, Outing, Suicide, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Homophobia, Animal death, and Rape

Moderate: Classism, Sexism, Alcoholism, and Fire/Fire injury

ellahoward_'s review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This had potential and great premise but it just felt bleak and dark, compared to how it has been advertised. I did enjoy it and think the 3 acts were well written it just seemed a little unfinished and the ending underwhelming. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Child abuse

Minor: Homophobia

hawkelf's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This book was a slow start for me, due to the amount of characters very loudly Not Saying Something to the main. But the descriptions of bookbinding (both familiar and magical) were beautiful and compelling, and the goodreads reviews were questionable, so I carried on. 

This book unwinds melancholic through three parts, with the middle at the beginning, the beginning in the middle, and a POV change for the end, but I think it works. If you're fond of the backstory sections of Black Sails, you'll like this too. It takes place at the beginning of the machination of industry in England, though that has little to do with it. It's a love story, and a story about how power can be - and would be, was, and is - abused by the powerful and money hungry. It has a quiet sense of strength and preservation, and hope. It has its heavy moments, and for sure period typical homophobia, though, so check the cw.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Classism, and Rape

Minor: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

r_gale's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

1.5

I was really intreged by the concept of the book and the fact it was in the lgbtq section but honestly I got bored not even half way though and before binding was explained and nothing lgbtq had happened. 

Struggeled though the rest of the book but didn't like the change in narrative more to know how it finished and even then I was underwhelmed. 

after seredith dies the whole book switches themes from comforting mystery with errie undertones to gritty world full of homophobia and abuse. And the repeat abusor side narrative that wasn't resolves was extra upsetting

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual violence

kaiiyo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

A joy to read that left me quietly weeping in the bath
Wonderful characters and beautifully evocative writing 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Misogyny, and Murder

Minor: Classism

franticfreya's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Blood, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Physical abuse, Vomit, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, and Sexual assault

prettycloud's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

This book has a lot going on. It's got the good historical fiction atmospherics—scenic rural landscape, old bookbinder's workshop—but it's grounded in real human interactions, with flawed characters making difficult choices. It deals with some really heavy topics—trauma, homophobia, assault, to name a few—but it's not relentlessly gloomy. It's a weird hybrid of coming of age, mystery, and romance. The first part feels like a quest for truth, like how Chasing Vermeer felt when I was a kid. There's a sense of wonder even among the awful things people do to one another, and there is beauty and hope. The latter part becomes darker and romancier: if you've read or watched Fingersmith or The Handmaiden, there's some of that energy, though without the masterminding. Would recommend if you like that sort of thing, or time loop or memory loss stories. I think part of the polarization of reviews is because this is such a teenage story even if it has more adult themes. Another reviewer here described it as a Drarry fic with the serial numbers filed off—I don't know whether that's true, but describes the vibe very well and could be useful in deciding whether to check it out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Outing, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Violence, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Blood, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Animal death

Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Rape, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexism, Kidnapping, Classism, Sexual content, Murder, and Body shaming

There are some really awful and messed-up characters in this book who have a lot of power in their classist, sexist society. The main protags make mistakes and are really angry and traumatized through a lot of this, but aren't doing any of the really awful stuff. They experience homophobia, emotional abuse/gaslighting, and physical abuse

from their families

.

A beloved authority figure

dies. We watch

a beloved animal

get killed during the kidnapping. But the overall tone is hopeful.