Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

15 reviews

mcosmic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Gaslighting, Violence, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

jo_lzr's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

I really liked the prose of the book. I sympathized a lot with Fitz. There is, also, a strong focus on Fitz's mental health. Even though descriptions were a bit exhaustive at times, Robin Hobb's talent in story crafting made up for it.

Spoiler

I think that the fog that Galen put in the mind of Fitz so that he would forget about his ability to Skill, which caused him to hate himself so much that he wanted to commit suicide is an interesting metaphor for real life. I don't know if that was something the author did on purpose, but it is interesting to think that in real life the perspective of oneself can become fogged through abuse and gaslighting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

eleanorjmca's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Suicide attempt

bea_reads_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Child abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Cursing, War, Alcoholism, Grief, Sexism, Bullying, Death, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Blood, and Adult/minor relationship

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Emotional abuse, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Abandonment, War, Gaslighting, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Classism, Ableism, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Medical content

Minor: Miscarriage, Suicide, Infertility, Sexism, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Alcoholism, and Infidelity

Corporal punishment/whipping. Poisoning and aftermath. Near drowning.

anahisa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

3.25

OK HEAR ME OUT!!!!

three stars because it’s very much a set up book, but the promise of the story it teased throughout is very exciting + intriguing! will be reading on when time (my library hold) permits 🫡

the exposition dragged, yes, but I do believe it’s worthwhile world-building that has already, and will continue to, pay off in future installments. also (?) surprisingly heartfelt!! shocked + upset to find myself crying over characters I didn’t think I’d connected to (silly me). 

and YES im reading queer subtext into it <333

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Murder, Violence, Death, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Suicidal thoughts

zone_a3's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Classism, Gaslighting, Murder, Abandonment, Animal death, and Emotional abuse

eileenp59's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Classism, Violence, War, Suicidal thoughts, and Bullying

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Torture, Murder, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Misogyny, Grief, and Addiction

Minor: Body shaming, Vomit, Biphobia, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Stalking, Child death, Sexism, and Emotional abuse

maeverose's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

                         TL;DR:

Not a lot happens in the first half, mostly an introduction to everything and following Fitz as he grows up and trains to be an assassin. Second half tried to do too many different things back to back. I assume setting stuff up for future books but it felt a bit jumbled. Maybe if the beginning had been condensed it could’ve been spread out better. I really like the writing style and world building. I don’t know if I would say the book itself is too long or more so that big books just can’t keep my attention. I was only mildly interested for a lot of this book.

                       Characters

So far I’m not that connected to Fitz. To me he felt a little void of personality outside of having a strong moral code, liking animals, and being a teenager. Some of the side characters were much more interesting to me. Mainly Chade, Burrich and the Fool. My favorite character so far is the Fool.

‘The gender of the Fool has been disputed. When directly questioned on this matter by a younger and more forward person than I am now, the Fool replied that it was no one's business but his own.’ — You tell ‘em. (I say, as I’ve decided that he’s transmasc non binary..)

                          A Note

For people who haven’t read the book yet: I feel like chapter 15 deserves a bit of a warning. Specifically for telepathic mind rape and suicidal thoughts/attempt. There’s some build up to what happens within that chapter, but it’s much more intense than most of the book leading up to it.

I was gonna include a whole rant about the never corrected ableism but decided I was being over dramatic so I’ll spare you. I just find it annoying that people only ever seem to care about ‘time period accuracy’ (being as this is clearly based on medieval times) when it allows them to treat their marginalized characters poorly. I know this was written 30 years ago but still. It irked me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Death, Animal death, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Excrement, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Misogyny

Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

Graphic: poisoning, telepathic mind rape, mental loss of self (becoming zombie-like), drowning, in one scene a dog is in a lot of pain and distress due to a bone stuck in its throat. Fitz removes it and the dog is fine, but the scene is very graphic. Moderate: self hatred, suicide baiting, eugenics

plume_de_renarde's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Gaslighting