Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon

18 reviews

sashahc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-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

5.0

Sometimes there are those who would rather burn the world down than bend to it.  Wyatt, MC of the "The Witch King" by HE Edgmon, is a trans witch with a predestined royal love, uncontrollable magic powers, and rage for days.  This one is an epic urban fantasy / portal fantasy about fighting tooth and nail for who you really are and who you love and deciding if the world is really worth saving or not.  Wyatt's best friend is an absolute keeper and brings the levity to what could otherwise be a heavy.  This is the best kind of epic YA #PridesSFF #book, full of teenage angst and power.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Abandonment, and Gaslighting

mxemma's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

This book was enjoyable in some ways, but suffers from a whole lot of tonal dissonance. It felt like every couple of pages we swung from fluffy fanfic romance (there was only one bed!) to horrifying gore and betrayal. The writing itself is beautiful, but I think cutting a few lines and a couple plot-twists would have made the story flow more smoothly and strengthened the book as a whole. They may be setting up the sequel, but the ending felt rather abrupt because of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Violence, Racism, Gore, and Hate crime

Moderate: Body horror, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Sexual violence, War, Terminal illness, and Transphobia

Minor: Pregnancy, Dysphoria, and Deadnaming

itsapaxycab's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

I loved this book and it will definitely be one i reccomend to other people. A very sweet story with a strong queer backing, interesting plot, and gripping tension. While i felt the conclusion/reveal was a bit rushed and a little tooo perfect, u still enjoyed the story so much, and loved the enemies to lovers plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Violence

Moderate: Deadnaming and Transphobia

Minor: Child abuse, Infertility, Abandonment, and Death of parent

fxnnxcs's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

5.0

i cannot recommend it enough, as an ace person i appreciated the ace rep as well as the fade to black, i didn’t have to sit through reading a whole scene

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abandonment, Sexual assault, and Transphobia

kai1313's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.5

 Originally rated it a 5 stars after reading, now I rate it a 4 as I read another 5 star read directly after it and started comparing the two experiences. I saw many reviews criticizing the world building, and how it didn’t make sense, or how they didn’t like the main character Wyatt. Personally, I came into it expecting a feel good sappy fantasy with a romance plot, and it provided just that. I didn’t read it for the complex world building and magic system. I read it purely for good vibes and it delivered, which is why I liked it. EDIT: now 3.5 stars after many months. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, War, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Police brutality, Abandonment, Colonisation, Homophobia, Murder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Child abuse, and Violence

naomiysl's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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

5.0

I am literally dying for lack of a sequel. Yes I know there is one, I plan to read it, it's on hold and my wait time is a whole month and did i mention I'm DYING. 

Slow burn romance of friends to enemies to lovers that hits all the right touch points. And the drama is NEVER about the trans character being trans, only about all the other things surrounding their relationship. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Sexual violence, Abandonment, and Transphobia

mythian's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death of parent and Child abuse

Minor: Abandonment and Deadnaming

brianneh's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

I really liked the beginning of this book, but I thought it got a little bogged down and flat in the middle. I wasn’t quite sure what the goal was at certain points and felt like the plot meandered a bit.

I loved that there was so much good representation and diversity in The Witch King. I really enjoyed several of the characters we are introduced to, my favorites being Briar and Jin. I wish we’d had more of Jin overall! I’d also love to hear more from Briar’s side of things, I think it would be really interesting.

At first, I really found myself drawn to the main character Wyatt and his story. One of my favorite lines of his in the early pages of the book was:

“Gender is weird. The rules are all made up and people should just do whatever they want”

But as the book went on I found Wyatt to be a bit annoying at times. The book is told through first person point of view, which I think contributed to the meandering I mentioned, as a lot of time was spent on Wyatt thinking about things, then not really communicating those thoughts to people in a conducive way. Throughout the book, Wyatt comes up these schemes which he doesn’t really seem to think through, then never really has to face any real consequences to many of his actions. This way of thinking and acting may be true to course for some teenagers, but it’s not the most compelling thing to read. 

There were also quite a few mentions about pregnancy, specifically unwanted and/or forced, which wasn’t marked in the content warnings here on StoryGraph. 

Overall, I know a lot of people love this book, and while it wasn’t one of my favorites, I can see why others enjoyed it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Transphobia, Violence, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Sexism, Pregnancy, and Deadnaming

Minor: Abandonment

carolined314's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

3.0

Glad to have a transman star who was not at all interchangeable for a cis one, in a detailed fantasy setting. A bit challenging by how much trauma was worked in, in what seemed like a romance-type book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death of parent, Physical abuse, Grief, Toxic friendship, Death, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Gore, Police brutality, Stalking, Murder, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Child abuse, Classism, Transphobia, Bullying, and Deportation

theblerdnewsletter's review

slow-paced

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

2.0

This book is terrible. Reading AAVE by a non-Black author in 2022 is completely ridiculous. Are you serious? Ugh. Wyatt’s internal voice is annoying and repetitive. There’s not any significant character development (or real plot development, just lots of teenage angst) and it’s creepy reading about

literal teenagers having sex

. I just skipped that part. I think the

Fae being from another planet is a really cool idea but the execution was abysmal

. Also we’re not going to address Briar & Wyatt’s super toxic relationship? Or the fact that Wyatt needs a lot of therapy. I am sad

Wyatt and Emyr kind of don’t end up together

but also it’s probably a good idea because their relationship is also super toxic. Y’all love each other. Come on. 10/10 wouldn’t recommend. I want my 12 hours back.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Classism, Death, and Injury/Injury detail