Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

55 reviews

triley's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Blood, Death, Gore, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Racism, Animal death, Antisemitism, Child death, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Kidnapping

Minor: Physical abuse, Grief, and Vomit

chrispybacon's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

The book had a strong premise but poor execution. I was excited to have a heroine in her mid-twenties but Evike is so dumb I could not relate to her at all. None of her relationships are healthy - the Yehuli want her to convert (they also help her but they are very interested in her joining them), her love interest is a coward and also her jailer, her whole village physically and verbally abused her. Her life was shit and I would have left all of them in the dirt. It makes zero sense to return to her abusers. 
The plot is a lot of walking, being horny, being angry, being horny, plans backfiring, suffering deadly injuries but surviving them, more being horny and more walking. Somewhere in there were aspects of accepting yourself, growing into your powers (and loosing them), and conflicts about religions and cultures clashing which suffered greatly under all the rest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death of parent, Abandonment, Antisemitism, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Blood, Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, and Torture

averi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Death, Murder, Self harm, War, Antisemitism, Body horror, Blood, Gore, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Ableism

ericageorge91's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.75

If you told me that this book came from lost pages of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, I would believe you. From beginning to end, The Wolf and the Woodsman felt like a dark fairy tale told around a campfire. 

Ava Reid wove a brilliant story full of Hungarian history and Jewish mythology. The writing is stunning. The story was magical and atmospheric. As for the characters, you can’t help but root for Évike and Gáspár’s heroes’ journey as well as their love story. The last time I read an enemies-to-lovers handled this well was in Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse. Let me tell you, there were parts of this book that had me giggling and SCREAMING!  I won’t spoil those parts because I need readers to discover them organically 😌

Keep in mind that this isn’t romantasy. The quest is very much the forefront of this story and the romance is slowly roasting in the background, which is, personally, how I prefer my romance. I highly recommend this book. Shoutout to the audiobook narrator Saskia Maarleveld. Her talent really enhanced the storybook feel 🤗

TW:
(Graphic) Blood, body horror, death, gore, injury/injury detail, murder, religious bigotry, self-harm, violence

(Moderate) Animal death, antisemitism, bullying, grief, physical abuse, sexual content, trafficking, xenophobia 

(Minor) Animal cruelty, child abuse, death of a parent, torture, vomit 

Rep: Hungarian history, Jewish side characters, sapphic side characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Death, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Grief, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Sexual content, Antisemitism, and Xenophobia

Minor: Death of parent, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Torture, and Vomit

maresuju's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Religious bigotry, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Animal death, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War

bedtimesandbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Xenophobia, Genocide, Animal cruelty, Body horror, and War

Moderate: Child death

anastasiadreaming's review

challenging dark tense 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? It's complicated

2.0

I really wanted to love this one, and unfortunately it didn’t work out. I’m granting one star for the atmosphere, and another for Gáspár, but I’m stripping three for how nonsensical Évike’s decision-making was. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Self harm, and Lesbophobia

toffishay's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? No

3.75

A really intense, sweeping epic of war built on history and distrust and racial/ethnic injustice. I appreciated how the author handled this subject matter and some scenes were too real that I wondered if I would be able to keep reading. I love Evike, but I think that I also maybe would have enjoyed Gaspars point of view in a few chapters. Overall, really awesome read though. The recommendation from Samantha Shannon is very apt; if you like Priory of the Orange Tree, you would enjoy this as well, I think.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Hate crime, Animal death, War, Physical abuse, Grief, Blood, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Self harm, Misogyny, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Murder, Gore, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Antisemitism, Death, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Body horror, and Torture

Minor: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Child death

grace_yin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Bullying, and Physical abuse

jasperw's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring 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? Yes

3.5

I felt very mixed about this book. I flew through the first 1/3 of this book, into the world and interested where it was going. For the rest of it I did find myself having to push myself to continue reading. I really enjoyed the characters (not to say they didn't annoy me at times), and the histories used to create the story were amazing to see. I was just a bit uninspired by some of the storyline. It seemed at moments more tell than show, with confusion about why it was suddenly doing this action to get to a certain plot.
The ending, while I understand it and it fit the end of the story, did still leave me wanting a bit more. But I can recognize that more me than the story. It was a good ending for the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse