Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

22 reviews

emeraldrina's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

4.0

The plot is really interesting and I like the main characters - they’re complex and strong but also vulnerable. The bad guys were a bit one dimensional, and the world building felt a little half-assed at times. It was very unclear what level of technology was present for example, so I was often picturing a jumble of eras. I didn’t realize how young Yelena was supposed to be until I read the other reviews, and I agree that the age gap is weird and she didn’t act that young at all. The romantic conclusion felt a bit rushed at the end. But I’m still interested to see where the story goes!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Blood, Vomit, and Murder

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Transphobia

noellegrace8's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This type of fantasy is so hard to come by. It's more traditional, with the slow pace and less of a view into the emotions of the characters. They're more static than dynamic, coming into their own if changing at all. The combat scenes are the type of thing I would go back to read only THAT paragraph just for the fun of it (the mug scene, anyone?!). There is no sensationalism or glamorizing of the sexual assault in the book, which I appreciated. On the same note, I liked the represenation of someone whose romantic and sexual desires are unaffected by her past trauma even if that trauma(PTSD) does show up in other aspects of her life. There were no attachment disorder issues or anything, just a strong, decisive relationship. Readers who are looking for a very emotionally charged fantasy, especially on the romance side, will be disappointed in this, as the actual world-building and plot are where it shines. I honestly loved this book so much. Ready to read the others.

The one giant low point for me, despite my 5⭐ rating, is the 19 y/o with the 33 y/o thing. Gross. But to be honest, I genuinely can't imagine Yelena as any younger than 28. So... that's what I choose to believe she is lol. There's this whole section at the end of the book that has the writer going into her chapter notes on the book, and I was so disappointed to hear that a lot of her plot points were not planned, because in hindsight, I can see it. I wish I hadn't known tbh. That being said, the worst was the whole "I didn't plan for the age gap but it was the only thing that made sense." Nah. You can almost ALWAYS make writing work for your vision, you just have to have the skills to do so. Yes, Valek needed to be older to be the commander's first in command. But Yelena could have been older. Make a caste system, it seems like that's already a thing anyway with the way she's not even allowed to defend herself. She could have been owned by Reyad or something, making her disobedience punishable. There are so many ways the age thing could have been above board but Snyder deliberately chose not to put the effort in. So, again, in my head, Yelena is close to Valek's age, because she also ACTS like she is. NO 19 y/o would make the mature decisions she makes.

I give Kristin Atherton 3.5/5⭐. Sometimes she REALLY just HAS it, you know? With the way her voices are all different and recognizable especially. But she has way too much of a monotone most of the time, emotionless (that more stuffy British sound) or without enough pauses and inflection. More than that, however, is her pacing. I NEVER listen to dramatized readings at higher speeds than recorded because that, to me, is like watching a movie at high speed and therefore incorrectly depicts the art of the performance. But I listened to this on 1.5x without remorse. It was unbearably slow otherwise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Self harm, Transphobia, Medical content, Trafficking, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and War

paigesquared's review against another edition

DNF due to a whack-ass transphobic storyline that I'm not interested in seeing through. Bye!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Torture

Moderate: Transphobia

_rowantree_'s review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Rape, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Transphobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Outing

xolindsey's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Transphobia

ekcd_'s review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

2.0

I read this in high school (15 years ago) and I have thought about it regularly since then. What a good book it was, how I knew it was the beginning of loving fantasy. 

Decided to read it again and uh. It’s kinda bad? The prose is trash, like truly trash. FMC is a little annoying, a little too situationally perfect. Valek is whatever. Of course the only loveable characters are the hulking loyal body cards Yelena befriends by being ~so smol and fierce~

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Stalking, Outing, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

soupe's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

1.5

Started with a strong premise, but even before I got halfway through, the cracks started to show.

The world building was lacking, I had no real sense of time and place reading this (is it a medieval fantasy?There were grappling hooes, water bottles, and backpacks, so I still don't know). Plot-wise, it was too unfocused, introducing plot points, characters l, and backstory in the second half that really should have been alluded to earlier to get any payoff. Even then, some of those points were so flimsy there was no salvaging it.

This was a big disappointment.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Transphobia

jackiepreston's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Deadnaming and Transphobia

spaghettii's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.75

I could not put this book down! I had a hard time predicting a lot of the book, which was a nice change.

I knew Rand was going to betray her at some point because of how Valek described him, but wow. I like that despite being portrayed as the bad guy there was still depth to the chatacter.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

maevebillings's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Blood, and Sexual harassment