Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo

9 reviews

rory18's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A masterfully crafted collection of dark yet inspiring cautionary tales. There's no unreality trigger warning, but if there was one it would certainly apply for The Soldier Prince (heavy themes of grooming in that one, too.)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Xenophobia, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Child death, Alcohol, Homophobia, and War

wrinnola's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Blood, Confinement, Child death, Violence, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Classism, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Self harm, Body horror, and Bullying

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Addiction

magdie's review against another edition

dark emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

5.0

THE ILLUSTRATIONS PROGRESS ALONGSIDE THE STORY!!!! But in all honesty, I just loved it! I practically inhaled it in one afternoon after struggling to get through few pages of 3 different books the previous weeks. The genre just hit right ig. It's very whimsical but dark (it can get REALLY dark) and you can easily see the inspiration in popular fairytales, but it's not a retelling per se. They felt just right, enough fairytaleness, poetics and morals yet quite realistic characters. I also loved the tidbit easter eggs and references to other grishaverse books.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Classism, Bullying, and Abandonment

Minor: Incest, War, Trafficking, Miscarriage, and Pedophilia

peggy_racham's review against another edition

4.5

Six childrens stories that the grishaverse characters probably grew up hearing. They were all unique, interesting and diferent even when taking inspiration from some of our stories. 
(TWs are mostly of page and mention only, but these are stories similar to grimm original)

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Murder

talasterism's review

adventurous dark mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Murder, and Pedophilia

Grooming

eriniven's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Mental illness, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

jbabbm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I truly recommend this book if you want a peak of the Grishaverse before committing to read any of the books. These stories are great and pretty entertaining. Leigh Bardugo did a great job with these retellings of classical tales from our world.

This is also a great book to read if you have previously read the Grishaverse and feel nostalgic but aren't ready to dive back in just yet.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

blakethebookeater's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

My ranking of the short stories:

1. The Soldier Prince (5/5)
2. When Water Sang Fire (5/5)
3. Amaya and the Thorn Wood (5/5)
4. The Witch of Duva (4/5)
5. Little Knife (3/5)
6. The Too-Clever Fox (3/5)

Overall, I think that this was a beautiful collection and I loved the way Leigh subverted fairy tale tropes to create stories that feel so unique and dark and magical. This is definitely worth your time! Breakdown of thoughts on each story below:

Amaya and the Thorn Wood was such a beautiful and strong start to this collection. I loved the message of this story and it had some very strong imagery. Leigh knows how to write a good fairy tale.

The Too-Clever Fox was a good tale, classic animal fable, but it felt a little too short for me to really care and I feel like I saw the end coming.

The Witch of Duva was a VERY dark story and I loved it. It was very inspired by Hansel and Gretel and Leigh took it and twisted it into something so different and weird and it was great.

Little Knife was an overall strong story but I feel out of all of the stories, this one felt the most predictable to me. It’s not a bad thing, but when most other stories subverted or at least tried to subvert expectations, this one just fell a little flat in comparison. Still a good story!

The Soldier Prince is so good. Sooooo damn good. It surprised me by how much I loved it and the FEELINGS I got from even this short little tale made me love it all the more. This and Water Sang Fire are the tale that I feel like NEED to be adapted to the screen somehow because they are just that amazing.

When Water Sang Fire is the last story in this collection and the one that packs the most punch. It feels like a novella because of how long it is, and because of that this story definitely has the best character development of the bunch. This is even better when you realize it’s a loose adaptation of The Little Mermaid and it’s so dark and amazing. Great way to end this collection!

Now the only bad thing is that there aren’t more stories. So Leigh, please, I need another book of Grisha fairytales please because this was awesome.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, and Confinement

rachrreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Sexism