Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Gothikana by RuNyx

21 reviews

beehanc1929's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

Steamy and intoxicating with a mystery between the walls of a gothic castle. Highly recommend

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Murder

Minor: Bullying, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

spicycronereads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I have two print copies of this book, so it was a relief when I finally read it and actually enjoyed it. But buckle up, because I have OPINIONS. 

Let’s start with the good - the author is very good at setting the scene and establishing atmosphere. She writes rich, lush descriptions that engage all the senses. 

Her depictions of Corvina were compelling and it was fun to see her character arc. 

Some of the spicy scenes were quite good (the one in the Black Ball? 🔥). 

All of that said, I have a lot of gripes about this one. Most of these things could have been fixed with a firm developmental and line edit. 

The minor: As much as I love his aesthetic and possessiveness, Deverell is actually fairly flat as a character. Some of the spicy scenes are clumsy or downright terrible. The first seggs scene was awful and had me cringing for Corvina. 😬

As I mentioned above, the author is good at establishing atmosphere. The settings and descriptions establish Verenmore as almost out of time. Corvina seems a bit naive and even old fashioned, but then there would be these moments of dialogue that would completely change the tone. For example,

Corvina telling Vad “good luck getting your 🍆 wet.”

it was so out of place with the overall tone and voice, it was jarring. And there are dialogue moments like that throughout.

The pacing is a bit uneven, with certain scenes feeling rushed. They needed to be given more time to breathe. Like after

finding the weird shack, it never comes up again until the end.

 

Which brings me to the book’s  relationship to Gothic literature. *pushes glasses up the bridge of my nose* Based on the chapter heading artwork and epigraphs, it seems reasonable to assume that RuNyx is a fan of Gothic literature (though that Beetlejuice epigraph felt like a bit of a stretch…). So it was disappointing that the plot left several potentially supernatural loose ends. If the Gothic typically deals with allegory for social anxieties and the female gothic particularly centers on the power of seggsuality, there was such an opportunity to tie the “preternatural” events as she termed them to Corvina’s seggsuality. It could have been so seggs positive and affirming. But by

leaving the possibility of Corvina having schizophrenia and the weird loose ends with the disappearances and five new skulls,

it instead leaves medical and supernatural forces in play. Could have been cool social allegory. Instead it was just a spooky, ghost tale. A definite missed opportunity.

The book does have some representation of schizophrenia though I am not informed enough to know if it was a beneficial representation. No other diverse representation. Which is…strange…in this day and age. 

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It kept me entertained. I wish it had had one more pass with a firm editorial hand. Disappointing that Bramble didn’t have her work with an editor once they picked it up.  ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 🌶️🌶️🌶️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Suicide

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

One plot point could be considered anti-choice

biancaneve5's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

mutantfoodie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.5

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was well paced with intriguing characters. The writing style felt like it was a YA book. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing, just not something I expected. The writing felt like a Harry Potter book. While this does have some supernatural type elements, it is not HP at all. There is some spice. It does not over take the story, but it is throughout and it is explicit. The book left room for a sequel, but it's a completed story on its own. Overall, I enjoyed it enough to read it again and I would read a sequel if one is ever created.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Rape

amaranth_wytch's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Child death, Rape, Suicide, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

megwalker's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, and Suicide

rkidd130's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Murder

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Suicide, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Rape and Dementia

direguard's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

m_winnike's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

I got an ARC for this book. It was advertised as dark academia with some romance and a bit of a murder mystery plot throw in. This is a goddamn lie and I’m gonna fight whoever at Bramble is responsible for this absolute garbage fire of a book being published. There is almost no plot until over 75% of the way through, exactly zero of the characters have any semblance of a personality, the romantic couple had no chemistry but everyone around them constantly talked about how much fiery chemistry they had(bitch where?), the “plot twist” in the last chapters is quite literally one of the dumbest, and most convoluted things I’ve ever read in my life and somehow included surprise incest. I would not recommend this book to my bitterest of enemies let alone any of my book reading friends. To any fans of this book, which I cannot possibly believe actually exist, I need to know who hurt y’all that this is what you think is good. I didn’t think it could get worse after I read Zodiac Academy last year but this book sure proved me wrong. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Body horror, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Minor: Ableism, Rape, Torture, and Dementia

This book is somehow 456 pages of nothing, not plot, not vibes, not even tropes.

flor3nce17's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

Great plot. Had me hooked throughout, however, there were grammatical errors that confused me at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Suicide, and Murder

Minor: Rape