Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

7 reviews

grayreadsmanga's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Child death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Medical content

Minor: Body horror and Vomit

fantasy discrimination

7hunder's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

calamitydane's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense medium-paced

5.0

A male power fantasy but a great one. I love the adaptation of classic stories to this world. I love the characters. I love how they interact. Jaskier (Dandelion) and Geralt's relationship is so well written. They really sound like old friends and I smile every time they have scenes together.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

onthesamepage's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.5

If you're looking to pick this up after watching the adaptation, this book just about covers the first half of the first season.

Caveat: I first got to know The Witcher through the games (I played all 3, and loved them), and then I watched the first 2 seasons of the adaptation. This means I went into this book with expectations and an element of fondness/nostalgia, which definitely impacted my reading experience in a positive way.

I'm still only giving this 3.5 stars.

The thing is, I don't think this series aged particularly well. It falls under that brand of fantasy written by men, where they feel free to create a universe where women are consistently abused because "that's how things used to be in the past". Never mind that this is a fantasy world. The stories are full of misogyny. Even capable women don't escape it. Instead of focusing on their strength or prowess on the battlefield, characters like Calanthe predominantly seem to be valued for her "hand and bed". Yennefer, one of the strongest sorceresses, gets the "let's show some nudity in a random fight scene just 'cause" treatment.

Looking past that, the world building remains extremely vague, and I question how much I would've understood about the tension between elves and humans without the knowledge I already had about the setting. I don't think most things are explained very well.

You do, eventually, get a sense of who Geralt is as a character, although even that I found disappointing, since the book seems to portray him as someone who has no issue killing humans to prove to some lord that he should be hired, or as someone who would potentially "mount a striga", as a priestess suggests. He didn't do the latter, but he definitely did the former, and I guess I prefer the version of Geralt that sees the shades of grey in every decision, and finds life in all its forms to be worthy of treating with respect.

I did find the book easy to read, and enjoyed some of the minor details like Geralt discussing theories with Roach. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Incest, Physical abuse, and Rape

doriandelioncourt's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Infertility, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

jenziecreates's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Xenophobia and Abandonment

Minor: Physical abuse and Rape

katmahalia's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious 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

3.75

I will be completely honest and say I didn’t follow the plot of the short stories that closely because I listened to the audiobook while playing video games, but from what I heard I really enjoyed it. The pacing did not feel too slow as it can in fantasy adventuring stories, and the action never felt disjointed or separated from the plot. And I liked the whole the-princesses-are-the-monsters twist on fairy tale plots, it was a nice nod to the fact that every fairy tale and legend has a bigger story behind it. 

My only gripe: the love interests are not interesting or lovely, mostly just annoying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Excrement, Medical content, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and War