Reviews tagging 'Rape'

I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon

18 reviews

bluebell4's review

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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

Broke my heart a million times over 💔

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide and Suicide attempt

1721egp's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Warning: Some spoilers may be concluded if you are not already familiar with the history and discussion surrounding Anastasia Romanov and Anna Anderson.

Start to finish, I was ENTHRALLED. I stumbled upon this title in the "suggestions" of Audible and decided to give it a try. I actually initially thought it was a biography comparing Anastasia Romanov and Anna Anderson until a few chapters in.

I realized what Ms. Lawhon was doing with the timelines about halfway through, and truly, this IS the best way to tell this story.

She nailed it - you hold out hope until the last few pages, just as Anna Anderson's supporters did. Like them, you don't know what to believe, even if you're familiar with the legend of Anastasia. Only this style could have given us such an experience. Ms. Lawhon tells the stories of these two lives in such a way that is unbiased until the end, allowing you to draw your own conclusions.

Every little detail circles back around. The things you don't think matter end up being key pieces. In fact, I need to read it again just to see what l missed the first time around.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Murder, and War

rcmaxfield12's review

emotional medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape

partisa88's review

informative mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

I started this book a while ago and actually read another book or two in the meantime. I had a hard time getting through it at the beginning, I’m not usually one for historical fiction so this was a step out of my usual comfort zone. This book was good once I got into it. She actually tells the story from two perspectives: Anastasia and Anna. The two stories are weaved together but Anastasia’s story starts from the beginning and Anna’s from the end. I’ll admit it was annoying at times going back and forth between the two stories but the author did a good job at the end of tying it all together. I did like the “fair warning” at the beginning of the book and the “I told you so” at the end of the book.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Rape

ni_kola's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Rape, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, and War

frantically's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.5

I was so sure when I started reading this book: I wouldn't fall for Anna Anderson's claims. After all, it had been proven time and time again, that she wasn't Anastasia Romanov, that the Imperial family had all been murdered, their remains all uncovered.

But somehow, even I, not only a history student but also someone who's taken courses on genetic testing and its benefits for historians, started to desperately hope for this to end differently — what if we'd been wrong? What if one of the Romanovs had truly managed to escape the actions of that horrid night. Fuck all that genetic testing. It just felt to terrible to bear that all of these children had been brutally murdered. 

And that's what this author manages to convey so, so well. Yes, they're entitled, they're spoiled, they think they deserve to rule over other people but in the end, it was still a massacre. No matter how much one is personally against royalty (and god, was I happy to read a book about royals written by someone who despises them — such a difficult concept to explain to people who know that I do royal history but don't understand who I can still wholeheartedly be against royalty).

I really appreciated the author's honesty in her own probable shortcomings when it came to the historical research. It's something we see way too little in historical fiction and I'd love to see it more! After all, there's a reason why I picked up fiction instead of my books for uni — I don't want to read about historical facts, I want something that can make these historical facts and historical people feel real. And this book definitely managed to do that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gore, Rape, and Sexual violence

Minor: Animal death, Mental illness, and Medical content

forthe_girlwhowaited's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Death of parent

tnociti's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, and War