Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Before the Devil Breaks You

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

23 reviews

_haggis_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious medium-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

3.75

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cowmouflage's review

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

1.75

I think a bullshit way to end a ship is to turn one member of it into a potential r*pist. That scene was completely unnecessary and took me out of the story for a few days. This book all around was very disappointing.

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jashanac's review

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3.5

The pacing in this one was a bit off for me -- at several points it kind of felt like it was dragging along.

I know she's a literal teenager, but Mabel is so annoying. I suppose that her behavior and thought processes make sense, for an immature child... but it wasn't enjoyable to read her scenes/chapters. She literally only "wants to do good things" because she feels that it will get her noticed. All of her choices are driven by her need to "be special" and "be noticed" and it grates on my nerves. It's not that I think she isn't actually a good person -- she is. But the immaturity of how she makes decisions is obnoxious as hell to me.

Also, I have never once understood the Evie + Jericho pining... I get it from his side... Evie is effervescent and fun and free and lives life to the fullest. But I never understood it from her perspective. I'm realizing that I really don't like love stories that are hinged upon, "We both have a darkness in our souls and therefore: true love." Most people have some bit of 'darkness' somewhere inside of them -- some secret past actions, or secret thoughts, or secret desires... that in and of itself shouldn't equate to loving someone, like wtf. You love every person who shows you that they have a similar darkness inside of them? You'd love basically every person you had a chance to really talk to.

Also -- what "ambition" does Evie think Jericho has??? When they met he was content to just putz along, helping Will, taking his serums, reading books, being serious all the time. What ambition did he express? I don't recall that being part of his character at all.

I truly do not understand her attraction to him even a LITTLE bit -- aside from maybe an initial "Oh he's cute" but to have this deep-seeded desire and longing for him? Is it really just based on that? And on the fact that he seems to adore her? Seems really dumb.

Theta also was doing a thing that I really find obnoxious -- the whole thing of, "I have powers that are scary and instead of working to learn how to CONTROL them safely... I'm just going to cover my ears and eyes and pretend like I don't have powers and avoid using them ever and that should totally work out fine, right?" Just absolutely stupid. I can understand having powers that are scary and that when uncontrolled have caused you to harm people when you didn't mean to... completely understandable to be nervous. But logically, it makes no fucking sense to avoid learning how to control those powers. DUH you should work on learning how to do that. Idiot.

So yeah -- I still love (most of) these characters. I'm very much intrigued with the plot still, and I didn't HATE this book. But it was definitely my least favorite of the series so far.

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maddiereadswords's review

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4.5

Great news!! Even after reading this book three times and fully knowing what's coming, the ending of this book can still make me cry. It's fine, I'm totally fine.

This doesn't have the same creepy, haunting vibes as the first two books, and the two parts feel a little more disconnected to the point where I almost wish it had been two separate books (mostly because the back half in particular is so fast-paced and plot heavy that it really loses that spooky edge, and also partly because I selfishly can never get enough of these characters.) This is easily the darkest and most "adult" installment so far, and while it doesn't hit quite as hard as the first two for me, it's still an absolute powerhouse of a book that drags me through the full spectrum of human emotion every time I read it. <3

Also shout out to Ling Chan for being so autistic that she accidentally bypassed internalized homophobia, and to Miriam Lubovitch and Viola Campbell for being such milfs that they keep adopting fucked up children like Pokemon despite being held captive. I love women.

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charlie1995's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

2.5

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co2lreads's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I'm very glad to be reading The Diviners series when I can go from one book directly to the next. This is a twisty mystery that keeps you turning to the next page to find out what is going to happen next. Libba Bray writes such incredible, diverse characters, and fits them in with the time period in a thoughtful way. This installment of the series really upped the stakes, with more danger and

huge character deaths

. I was left reeling!

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tinyy's review

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adventurous dark slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

Far less boring than its predecessor but somehow not as good. Bray has decided that either the characters are old enough to have sex or she got tired of not writing it, which is a shame. One of the things I enjoyed about this series was how chaste it was. Also, I don’t like the word “hardened”. It’s weird.
Despite my complaints, the characters, as usual, shined. Especially Mabel Rose, whom I have been adamantly defending since the first book. She is amazing and struggles with some serious moral dilemmas. I daresay I enjoyed her chapters more than Evie’s.

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