Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Awakening by Susanne Valenti, Caroline Peckham

12 reviews

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

I picked this up because everyone seems to be raving about this series, and I was curious.
"The Awakening" follows twin sisters: Tory and Darcy. Tory and Darcy have been in the foster care system since they were orphaned as babies. Now, 18, and kicked out of the system, they are just trying to make enough money to cover rent. But all of those worries seem inconsequential when they find out they are actually the daughters of the Savage King, and they are the rightful descendants of the fae crown. Now they must go through Zodiac Academy to learn about their true home and fight for their birthright.
This book was very fine. There is a lot of violence, nonconsensual acts, and ALOT of bullying, which I had a pretty good idea about before I started reading this. I found the hazing that the other students put Tory and Darcy through to be really off-putting, and the fact that none of the teachers did anything to remotely stop it was disheartening.
This book is definitely HEAVILY influenced by other popular stories, which is fine, but it made the book feel unoriginal.
I do not know if I will continue in this series, but I can now appreciate why everyone seems so enamored with this series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Stalking, Gaslighting, Torture, Violence, Physical abuse, Death, Bullying, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content

milla_b's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This is my first proper adventure into bully romance (The cruel prince was a toe in the water) and parts were a bit tough to swallow. I am curious to see how the relationships play out and how they move on especially after the the events book 1 left off from. 

Things I liked: 
• the storyline- really want to know more. And there’s a huge world that you’re being introduced to and I can’t help but want to know more about it beyond the Acadamy. 
• I like the characters and especially the twins 
• I’m on the fence about the Heirs, but not in the way that I don’t want to read about them, because I clearly have a thing for morally questionable characters….. 

Things that bugged me (but not enough to put me off):
• some of the writing, past and present tense. Some minor grammar errors and I think American idioms…..  idioms are not deal breakers but some are just personally a tad annoying for me. 

Overall I enjoyed it and will continue the series. Read it yourself and make up your own mind. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Cursing and Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent, Grief, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, and Abandonment

unicornofthesea's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual content, Stalking, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Grief, Bullying, Murder, Sexual assault, and Violence

lifeonasofa's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

The Awakening Zodiac Academy ♍️ Review 

“Tears never did anyone any favours, but sometimes they just needed to fall” 😭 - Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti 

⭐️⭐️💫 2.75 Stars

It only took me 2 weeks, but I got there. Shout out to @buddy for keeping me going. The hype surrounding this series is pretty intense and I didn’t realise quite how many HUGE books there were already! The first book was sat on my kindle for a while so I thought why not. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

First of all, I know I went in blind but I heard NOTHING about the sheer amount of bullying in this book. Wow. The WHOLE plot…bullying. I’ll be honest, a good 65% of this book was slow and painful. Very little happened, also everyone is so GROSS. 🙈

I was/still am intrigued by the school, the world and everything the Vega twins have yet to explore. The whole zodiac thing was pretty cool, but we really didn’t get a whole lot of info tbh. I have more questions than answers. 🤔 

I like the twins, they both have likeable personalities, lots of strength. They both however, lost themselves around boys. Said boys (and teachers) are so awful they don’t deserve a paragraph, they will never redeem themselves. 👎🏻

The last 35% was full of friendship, lust and action which I actually read in one sitting. So I don’t know what the authors were playing at with the first 300 pages! The ending made me so uncomfortable, but I’ll hand it to them…I’m intrigued. Darn it! 🙃

Overall, I do not understand the hype. But I do want to read book 2. Please check TWs before reading as this whole bullying thing seems wildly unnecessary to me. 👀

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Death, Abandonment, and Alcohol

lestie4short's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Child death, Death, Sexual content, Alcohol, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity, Vomit, War, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Torture

hiddeninfantasy's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Vomit, Abandonment, Alcohol, Car accident, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

kellicat94's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, and Torture

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Abandonment, War, and Grief

sophiepeach's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Classism, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Bullying, Stalking, Physical abuse, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Child death

beersbooksandbooos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

I hesitated with reading this book because of the TW but I am glad I finally did. I understand why the TW were listed and why some might need them. This wasn't a fluffy book to read but a very dark book which I have been in the mood for. I am already falling for a few of the boys and I wonder what that says about me.  I really like how strong Darcy and Tory Vega are and you might think they are broken but they are not. I can't want to see what they are up to in the next book and I can't wait to read about some revenge. I love some good revenge. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Torture

dadimabookernow's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship