Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

42 reviews

maybeimali's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

If you love the story of Cinderella do not read this. Great feminist text that gripped me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Child abuse, Death, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Gaslighting, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Sexism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Lesbophobia and Homophobia

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Torture, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Sexism, Physical abuse, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Abandonment, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Body horror, Animal death, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Police brutality, and Child abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Child death, and Classism

Minor: Infidelity and Bullying

laineydunne's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Violence, Blood, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, War, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Torture

pkc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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 bought this on a bit of a whim in 2021 thinking “why not indulge in another subversion of the Cinderella fairytale?” but I guess…like there’s no other subversion worth consuming. This is it. 

Holy crap I LOVED this story.

The protagonist was so engaging, so strong but proudly showed her vulnerabilities. The villain made my skin crawl. The love interests were fully formed characters in their own right who didn’t just serve to enhance the protagonists story. Representation was incredible (a POC MC, very queer).

Around the tail end of last year, I saw someone do a list of reading icks that they’d hope might be left in 2022. One of them was adults reading young adult books, as if it was somehow a lower class of read that shouldn’t be indulged. It really rankled me when I saw it as a 33 year old lover of YA and books like this beautifully explain why. 

This a story, aimed at young adults, that is absolutely about using your voice to speak out against oppression. It’s not the manic pixie dreamgirl or feelingsy guy that you find in the stereotypes that the genre is wrongly thought to comprise of exclusively. 

Sophia is a strong, ferocious human being who is guided by and intently focused on the right thing to do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Animal death, Biphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Torture, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Hate crime, and Sexism

saskiahill's review against another edition

fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Trafficking, Grief, Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Physical abuse

luzies's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

3.75

A book you can easily read in a few days. It was a very enjoyable and quick read for me. At some points I felt like the book was trying too hard, but it didn’t bother me too much. It has nice twists and is an original, wholesome story. Would recommend to anyone who’s searching for a story with a fantasy touch and a (queer) romance sub- plot. If you like retellings, this might be a very good fit for you, too :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Violence, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Moderate: Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Deportation, Homophobia, Murder, Violence, Death, Death of parent, and Torture

bookswithlauren's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.5

I enjoy books that take our classic fairytales and twist them, look at them from a different perspective and weave an entirely different story. I particularly enjoy how Kalynn Bayron explores how much of a negative impact fairytales can have on a society, something I have often thought about. 

We are fed these stories about lives, people, how they do and should live, from a very young age. When, in reality, they are idealistic, narrow minded and unrealistic. Not every girl is going to grow up to find and marry the man of her dreams, have children and live a perfect life she loves as a home maker. But these stories don't show us any diversity or inclusion of any kind. Children learn from fairytales and I don't think our typical fairytales are teaching anything useful and I love the way Kalynn explores this in Cinderella is Dead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Murder, Classism, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Blood, Bullying, Death, Grief, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Trafficking, and War

a_sleepy_berry's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Classism, Murder, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Rape, Sexism, Torture, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Violence, Homophobia, and Outing

deadgirlwalking23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Body horror, Confinement, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Gore, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, and Physical abuse

auteaandtales's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting