Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

43 reviews

broccoli_j's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book is similar to „the lunar chronicles“. The sapphic love story is very prominent in the book and the challenging of societal norms contains just sexism. 

All in all it’s a good book for a younger ya audience 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Violence

megdough's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Hate crime, Death, Gaslighting, and Murder

Minor: Trafficking, Death of parent, Body horror, Gore, and Animal death

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

roorooreads's review

dark reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

This just did not work for me unfortunately. The writing seemed to be written very young, especially with the themes found in this upper YA book. I loved the premise and hearing a different side of the story. But the romance was insta love and in my opinion, insta love that was not done well. The interactions of our main character Sophia and her love interest felt very awkward and forced. I will say there was one thing I didn't seem coming but the rest was fairly predictable. I really really wanted to love this book but unfortunately it just wasn't for me. I do think though that this would appeal to a younger teen audience who are ready for some slightly more mature themes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Trafficking, and Sexism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Blood, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Murder, and Kidnapping

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

kshertz's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense 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? No

3.75

This is so good for a debut novel. I loved the whole concept! I feel like it needed some editing (which I hardly ever catch so it was noticeable) but of course it was the first book! I loved the characters and rooted for them. I was happy with the ending. I would have loved for the Cinderella story at the end to be longer!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Misogyny, Violence, Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Gaslighting, and Lesbophobia

rose_thorn2020's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, and Gaslighting

Minor: Classism, Animal death, Sexual harassment, and Lesbophobia

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

leonormsousa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting