Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez

17 reviews

kshertz's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

Wow this was such a great book!! It really is like the Mummy movie. The romance is very PG but you root for them. There’s a lot of surprise twists and they made me gasp out loud.  Especially at the end when I realized it’s a series and the next book is not out for a while 😒. I would like to read the next book in the series so that’s how you know it’s worth the read! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Abandonment, Gore, Murder, Confinement, Death, and Gaslighting

zarhara's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Alcoholism, Grief, Colonisation, Death of parent, Classism, Alcohol, and Abandonment

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

picaresquedreamer's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Classism, Death, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Violence, Murder, and Child death

Moderate: Kidnapping, Grief, Sexism, Colonisation, War, and Blood

leopardsheetcake's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Colonisation, Death of parent, Death, Blood, Violence, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, and Racism

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, and Infidelity

Minor: Animal death, Misogyny, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Vomit

avidreader5678's review

adventurous emotional mysterious sad 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Torture and Sexual content

stormeno's review

adventurous fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Abandonment, Violence, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Gun violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Torture, Cursing, and Kidnapping

manaledi's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

I feel torn because this was well done but I didn't particularly like it. I've never been into period pieces with their strict rules and corsets and the way teenagers are considered adults. I get that much of the context of this book is the looting of historical artifacts from Egyptian tombs by rich foreigners and yet it bothers me that all the main characters are rich white foreigners. It's set in Egypt but not about Egypt. There were a lot of plot twists for the mystery in the second half and I didn't like them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Colonisation

Moderate: Misogyny, Abandonment, and Alcoholism

Minor: Gaslighting, Gun violence, Confinement, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Murder

bowedbookshelves's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Death, Gaslighting, and Murder

amandafitz's review

adventurous dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Addiction, Cultural appropriation, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Sexism, Violence, Colonisation, Confinement, and Infidelity

bibliomania_express's review

3.5

What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez is a historical fantasy steeped in 1880s Egypt. Inez is looking for answers about the death of her parents. She travels to Egypt from Buenos Aires to find out what happened, but nothing is as she expects when she arrives. Now she'll have to rely of her stubbornness and resilience to find out the truth. 

I'm conflicted about this book. On one hand, I absolutely enjoyed the atmosphere and the way Ibañez weaves history, politics, and culture into the narrative to make it feel very grounded. There are so many great details about the weather, the markets, the languages, and how people get around. I liked that Inez wasn't a push-over when it came to going after what she wanted. 

On the other hand, this book relies a bit too much on twists and the magic system isn't very well explained. It's a little unclear how common magical items are or how it all works. I was also annoyed at Inez for a lot of the book. While she stubbornly pushes forward, she also doesn't have great instincts and is somehow both too suspicious and too trusting. There's one major twist that became more obvious as the story went on. But the whole things relies on a bunch of people straight up refusing to communicate and I was annoyed at the lot of them. 

I'm also just mad at it for the cliffhanger ending. Of course I want to know what it's all about, which means waiting for the next book in the series. But the way these things go it's definitely more for shock factor than intrinsic truth

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Sexism, and Alcohol