Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Awakening: As Told by the Boys by Caroline Peckham, Susanne Valenti

14 reviews

ashleynp24's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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

3.0

Liked the guys perspective for more of the insight into their backstories and thoughts. I kinda skimmed through some of the dialogue though because it’s word for word the same as the 1st book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

weckmarl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed reading this in tandem with the first book. It helped shed light on their horrible actions. It was sad and conflicting and I just wanted to hug everyone 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual content

Minor: Car accident and Murder

nineinchnails's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

i don't think i've ever read this kind of retelling before (where i've already read 90% of the story) but i was just desperate to hold off on whatever agony and anguish is coming for my favs in book 7. there isn't much to say about the book since it's pretty much a 1:1 retelling of the first book in the series but there were a few scenes that gave a lot more insight into the guys' motivations and how conflicted they were. seth just came off as cruel and petty here so even though i know he improves eventually it was still a little disappointing to see how much he was revelling in the opportunity to humble darcy as payment for something she had nothing to do with (directly). she didn't even know he was mad at her never mind why he was mad. the foreshadowing was strong here so i'm glad i read this when i did or it probably would've spoiled some of it for me. it took me a lot longer to read because i obviously knew almost everything that was going to happen so it wasn't the most interesting read - i can definitely see myself enjoying it a lot more as a tandem read with the awakening on a reread though! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Blood, Grief, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Death, Car accident, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Attempted murder, Student/teacher relationship, Dubcon (biting), Noncon (biting)

selestre's review against another edition

dark emotional funny slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Torture, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

casey_497's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

hannahwriightt's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Incest, and Violence

Minor: Car accident and Death of parent

dkgreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

There’s two sides to every story, which is why I freaking love dual POV books. I’m glad I decided to read this before jumping into book two, because having a peek into the boys’ heads during the events of The Awakening was super enlightening. However, now matter how compelling the reasons behind their actions were, I still hope the twins come into their power and completely hand the boys their a$$es.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

briochebun's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

4.25 out of 5 ☆’s.

”The darkness is your closest friend, but it’s time to let it go.”

ੈ✩‧₊˚

This retelling of the first novel FAR exceeded my expectations!

(I still cannot believe that I had such a wondrous — and at times painful — time reading about these events that I already knew the outcome of…)

Going into this novel, I was a bit worried that my decision to read “The Awakening: as Told by the Boys” before ”Ruthless Fae” would prove to be an unwise one because I would be interrupting the flow the story (therefore potentially sending me into a slump if I didn’t end up enjoying ”The Awakening: as Told by the Boys”). 

Now that I’ve finished the novel it’s clear to me that I did in fact make the correct decision by reading this first! (yayyy 🥳)

ੈ✩‧₊˚ 

Getting to see everything that the male characters were up to during the events of TA was an eye-opening experience, and I’m sooo glad that I got more insight into their personal lives as well as their thought processes (especially Caleb’s) during all of the chaos…

ੈ✩‧₊˚

I’m just itching to begin “Ruthless Fae“ and continue this story! ♡

P.S. Orion still owns my heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death and Sexual harassment

charhollyx's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-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

4.0

A really interesting insight into how the boys perceived the awakening and the events following.
As I read this after book 7, I found it was difficult to reread the boys without their character development, Seth in particular who I grew to love.
I would recommend reading it last, because although the characters are still hard to swallow, there is a little too much  obvious foreshadowing which annoyed me a bit. 
I would have preferred all of the boys pov’s, as it was mostly Darius and Orion with a splash of Seth and Caleb and only one chapter of Max - I wanted equally distributed chapters for all the heirs and Orion, but it was still a fun read and I have missed Solaria and Zodiac Academy a lot!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, and Sexual content