Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

28 reviews

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, War, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Confinement, Child death, Body horror, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Medical content

Minor: Alcohol, Rape, and Murder

siglerbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Where to begin? This book is as close to a unique story as I've ever read. It's hard to describe because it feels quite original.

The underlying tones are definitely Beauty and the Beast but in very much its own way. 

Our heroine, Nieshka is instantly loveable for her clumsy, messy, confident self. I've never read a hero quit like her and it was very enjoyable.
Her sunshine to the Dragon's grumpy was delightful.

Perhaps one of my favorite things about this book was the themes of friendship and individuality seen side by side without being pitted against each other. Nieshka and her best friend Kasia have a beautiful friendship that acknowledges their flaws but never stops them from loving each other. We see hints of real human jealousy, grief, annoyance, and love in both girls even though their personalities couldn't be more different. I don't know if I've ever seen such a wholesome and believable friendship in literature before.

I enjoyed the story over all, though for a while the plot did get terribly confusing and difficult to follow. Once we were given answers they were mostly satisfying.

While I will never completely enjoy the "undefeatable villain" trope, the reasoning behind this one was at least understandable.

Even the ending was quite unique. I enjoyed the less-than-perfect end. I think everything neatly wrapped in a bow would have betrayed the overall feel of the story.

Over all I definitely liked Uprooted, and am likely to read it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Body horror, and Confinement

Minor: Toxic friendship, Rape, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and War

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

inspiring reflective tense medium-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: War, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Murder, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual content, Drug use, Confinement, Death of parent, Vomit, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Blood, Animal death, Medical content, Body horror, and Alcohol

Minor: Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Genocide, Child death, Rape, Slavery, and Colonisation

imbored_soillread's review against another edition

Was wonderfully written, I just didn’t do my research and I don’t like any spice in my books at all. Dnfed at first sign of it. Also I didn’t love the age gap, and that the mc was 17 while the love interest is an immortal old man. Not for me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual assault

Moderate: Gore, Rape, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

walkie_check's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Grief, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Grief, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, War, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Infidelity, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Alcohol, Cancer, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, and Rape

livid_by_any_other_name's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gore, and Death

Minor: Rape

esme_may's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I adored this! It's written absolutely beautifully with gorgeous imagery, and the ending is maybe my favourite I've read this year. I'd read more by Naomi Novik in a heartbeat

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and War

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Medical content, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Confinement, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Minor: Genocide, Grief, Alcohol, Racism, Torture, Xenophobia, and Vomit

orchidlilly's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Overall, subpar. The magic and world building are far more interesting than any of the characters could ever dream of being, which is a shame because we don't get to see much of it. The premise was interesting, the plot was an actual plot, but it could have been fleshed out so much better if it only had a bit more time. The ending was a semi-refreshing subversion of the expected romance ending, but it felt a bit rushed. The romance part itself was, in my opinion, wholly unnecessary and a bit unpleasant. The main romantic interest is an immortal while our mc is... 17-ish. Not to mention the attempted rape scene.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Bullying, Fatphobia, Gore, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Death, Sexual harassment, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Animal death, and Confinement

sof_led's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-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? N/A

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Rape, Body horror, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault

saintyeehaw's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

I kept rooting for this book and it kind of kept letting me down, sadly. I fell in love with the magic system, the visualizations of spell casting, the descriptions of reading the Summoning, and the dark horror of the Wood. Unfortunately, Sarkan's never ending verbal abuse toward Nieshka, her being 17 to his 150, the weird sympathetic framing of a rapist, and the inclusion of only one explicitly black character just to have her be the daughter of a slave really soured me on the whole thing. 

I'll just rant here. The fact that Sarkan chooses specifically girls (never explained why boys aren't chosen if everyone with the gift must be trained) and expects them to cook all his meals for him for ten years was already irredeemable in my eyes. His constant berating of Nieshka literally left her EXPECTING abuse multiple times throughout the book which left me feeling sick at its romanticization. Truly, Sarkan's only traits were that he liked cleanliness and that he was mean. Their hideous age gap (of literally a child and a very old man) being framed as his excuse to momentarily hesitate from sex with her? yikes. Why did she need to be 17? I would have much preferred reading about an adult woman and her ages old immortal boyfriend. Lastly, the rape scene was handled unbelievably poorly and just made Sarkan even more monstrous to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

Minor: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, and Vomit