Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu

57 reviews

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

Monstress Volume 1 by Marjorie M. Liu is an amazing introduction to a new comic book world. The world building was wonderful, intriguing, and just down right entertaining. The art has been done by Sana Takeda and it's so beautiful, the art style is very "steampunk" and it just brings so much life to the story. 

Monstress is the story of Makia, a 17 year old who has grown up around war and she has lost so much. She has a psychic link with an entity inside of her, one that she struggles to control. She sets out on a mission and she ends up traveling/escaping with some friends after she finishes said mission. 

This was really entertaining and I had so many questions after the first volume, I'm so excited to dig into the later volumes to see if my questions will be answered. I really enjoyed this comic so I'm giving it a 5 out of 5 stars! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

theuerma's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

allie_fawn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This series is gorgeous. There is a lot of names and lore to consume and that can be overwhelming, but I still highly enjoy it and the artwork is beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

jesspajamas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

monstress is a queer steampunk matriarcal fantasy world that Liu and Takeda bring to life with so much beauty and nuance. this series is a challenging read both for the darkness within this story (genocide, warring factions, etc) and for the scale of the world that Liu builds around Maika, the main character.

lots of reviews say that this series is confusing - and i agree that Liu presents the reader with tons of mysteries and questions - but she does a good job of dropping answers and unraveling the history of this world and Maika’s own history over the course of the series.

i picked up Monstress after starting another one of Liu’s series, The Night Eaters, and i’m so happy that i did! if you like queer dark fantasy worlds that basically don’t involve men, i would 10/10 recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Genocide, Violence, and War

laurenvoice's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

3.75

 Monstress, volume one was fun but intense!

This was way more graphic than expected; nonetheless, it was the perfect read to start the spooky season. I am curious to know what happens next! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Slavery, Cannibalism, and War

cassandra_catastrophe's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, and War

jenniferlynnkrohn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

vincci's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

It took a bit for me to understand what was going on, and the violence/gore is a bit off-putting, but I am interested in reading the rest of the series. The illustrations are beautiful and the colour scheme really sets the tone (no pun intended) for the story. Interesting to see a work like this coming from a female writer-illustrator duo! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, and War

folly's review against another edition

DNF'd 20 pages in. From what I've heard about this series it should be something I'd find interesting but I wasn't prepared for it to start with a bunch of enslaved & tortured children. That's a no from me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Slavery

twocents's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

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

4.0

"Do you ever stop running? Or would that require you to be too much with yourself?"

Beautiful and compelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Murder, and War