Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

9 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.75

Interesting story. Mostly loved it was about WWI. Seems like there are very few stories about that one, and I’m a bit burned out on WWII.

Was a little surprised homophobia went unaddressed given the time frame it was written in.

Pace of progression was a little fast for me. Seemed like little time passed between all the events and that ordinarily, such said events would take longer to develop. However, I liked it overall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

toriwatson's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Grief, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

theoceanrose's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, and War

Minor: Suicide

blacksphinx's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

whatkireads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a haunting tale about the Battle of Paschendaele and a mix of World War One. It revolves around the battle between the Canadians and the German before the Allied forces came to assist in the battle. 
I'm not sure I fully understand the story, but it was haunting and gripping entirely the same. The book has a sliver of fantasy, where amidst the war, there is a being known as the fiddler, called Faland. Some refer to him as the devil, but he equips a violin and grants your wishes in exchange for a story. 
The subplot of romance was very unexpected for me, the way the story makes you slowly realise when a character is falling in love, just like how the character comes to the same conclusion.
The side characters never really feel like side characters, they all are complex and hard to understand and yet you can't help but root for them all the same. 
This was very different from the books I usually read, but captivating and haunting all the same.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide attempt

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing, Drug abuse, Sexism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Vomit, Pregnancy, Classism, and Deportation

mtnest's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

pixie23's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

brandyrae's review against another edition

5.0

I sincerely feel this book will one day be considered a modern classic.

It is a story of war, terrible and brutal; of love, kind, searching, enduring; loss and grief, and apocalypses great and small. Sometimes, when the world ends, it's not on a grand world stage. It's personal. What do we do when our worlds end?

It's so hard to know what I can say about this book. This is my first arc (provided by netgalley) and this book won't be out for two months!

I need to tell you all the reasons I love Laura and Pim. How they literally collide into each other after both having lost everything and have to find their paths forward. All the reasons I love Freddie and Winter, reborn together in darkness and how far their paths diverge. The two stories start at different times and when you get to the point where they converge? Magic.

It's like a brutally realistic historical fantasy steampunk-esque reimagining of Orpheus and Eurydice, but like platonic (the romances in this book are perfect though not at all the main plot, just that quiet genuine love that grows when you are with a person. ugh, so good).

I don't think I have to give this back? So I will definitely be re-reading it but I've also put in my pre-order for a physical copy. I need to do some annotating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail