Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

42 reviews

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This is a hard book to rate. I really enjoy the concept and a lot of the plot points. An grumpy evil villain with a sunshine down on her luck assistant? Amazing! I think the issue is execution. The book is incredibly slow and any story advancement is basically in the last 50ish pages. The characters are also relatively flat and boring. Like Evie got a blip of development past the box she was shoved in during the last 5 pages. Becky and Blake are the worst examples of this because they're exclusively office suck up and the goofy guy. I tried to give this book grace because its part of a series but a lot of content could have been added to create context for a lot of things we're just like asked to believe. Like the Villian being a village terror (

he basically only beheads people who work for him, people trying to kill him, or anyone who disrespects people he cares about

), King Benedict being a "hero" in literally anyones eye??, or the lack of world building (where are they, how far away is the palace, is it like a fairytale kingdom or am I supposed to be imagined King's Landing from GOT?) This just needed more world building content, more contextual characterization, and a story restructuring for me.

Also when the Villian is like I love Evie! I literally closed my book and rolled my eyes. WDYM? This is a slow burn bro you aren't supposed to know that yet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

excritos's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting and Sexual harassment

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious 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? No

3.0

Cute book, but not enough for me to want to continue with the series. I did like the way Evie’s character developed, especially as it got closer to the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

crownoflaurel's review against another edition

funny lighthearted slow-paced

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

2.5

Fan-fiction style writing, made up of a series of scenes indulging in the more annoying character behaviors, and it ends in a cliffhanger? 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Sexual assault, and Gaslighting

brewingespresso's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

Solid 4-star read for me! This is such an easy, “I don’t need my brain fully on” book and I LOVED it! It’s so cute, there are so many great Grumpy x Sunshine moments, the burn is slower but the story is adorable. I loved Evie and all her little side notes to herself and I loved the Villain and all his anger issues.

Also I have to be so so fr, you just know he’s hung

Kingsley was a phenomenal character I just wish we’d gotten more of him.

FUCK GRIFFIN SAGE ALL MY HOMIES HATE GRIFFIN SAGE

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Police brutality, Grief, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

brendal's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Huge cliffhanger!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Murder and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual harassment

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

2.5

It had promise but ended up lacking.  The pacing felt awkward, the pining was uninspired, the world building was confusing..  I could go on, but it wasn't a bad book.  Doubt I will continue the series.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

ajhling's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing 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? It's complicated

3.75

(Please note it took me from October to December to finish it, not because I wasn't interested but because I'm Autistic and other things (video games, cooking, trying to learn another language, and a handful of movies, books and TV shows) caught my attention (yay for hyperfixation)).

This book is a fun read. It's obvious that the author doesn't have much experience in writing, and that - at least in the Google Books edition I had - there was some minor formatting and spelling issues.

But despite the clear inexperience of the author, I found myself enjoying the book. The cast of characters weren't 'diverse' in the real-world sense. But to be fair, its a fantasy world with fantasy nations and cultures, and we only know  there are other cultures in this world because they were occasionally mentioned very briefly.

That being said, the characters that were depicted weren't of the same physical appearance (not all white, or supermodel 'pretty'), and at least two side characters were revealed to be not-straight (so for those of you that care about that sort of thing you'll find a little bit of representation).

However, there were definitely character tropes happening. The Villain (the love interest for the fenale protagonist) being described as really attractive and physically strong. The female protagonist having black hair and light-blue eyes (which apparently is seen as a cliche these days that doesn't bother me but apparently bothers orhers). 

Random bitchy female character who would be the high school girl who thinks she's better than everyone because 'reasons' in a YA novel, but in this one she is a co-worker who thinks she's better than everyone because 'reasons.' A dumb geeky-jock-like character clearly crushing on the bitchy co-worker but probably doesn't stand a chance.

But even with the cliches and the plot being a little 'holey' (which is unsurprising because this whole idea for the story literally started thanks to a TikTok serie and was originally created for fun and enjoyment) the story was still good. 

Would I say it was great or revolutionary? Nope. But it was still a great light-hearted read for when you don't want to read something too heavy or with to many 'moving parts' or complex lore.

Was the world and character building a little on the weaker side of things? Yes. But don't worry, there was character development for not just the maim characters but fir secondary characters as well (and most of the character development happened in the last five-odd chapters). Despite this the characters were interesting enough that I cared about what happened to them.

Will I be reading the sequel? Yes, because I genuinely want to know what happens next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Torture, Grief, and Sexual harassment

Most content warnings were only briefly mentioned or implied. Only two were more obvious (gaslighting, blood and violence and sexual harassment coming up or implied more than the others) but even then they weren't overly explicit. The most explicit was description of an injury that resulted in death of a number of people.

jenn_chem's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense 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

5.0

I love this book so much. There were a few anachronistic words here and there, but everything else was perfect. Slow burn. Friends to not-quite lovers in this book. Ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. Authentic characterizations, punchy dialogue and banter, character growth, and a clever and well thought out part. I will absolutely read this book again before the next in the series comes out.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, and Gaslighting

Minor: Child death, Sexual assault, Torture, and Abandonment

tymtoread's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.0

Slay (the king). 

Fuck that cliffhanger tho

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Blood, Kidnapping, and War