Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Lightlark by Alex Aster

6 reviews

readyforit's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

4⭐️0.25🌶️(one nondescript scene where she gets to 2nd base, pretty much uneventful)

I was promised hunger games with this book but it felt more like fantasy survivor to me! A group of chosen ones go to an island where they take part in various tasks of physical and emotional strengths, alliances are formed and broken, trust is betrayed, and the winner gets to be all-powerful.

I thought the first 7ish chapters were pretty slow due to world-building, but after that I pretty much flew through the book. I started listening to the audiobook alone and I just could not keep up with all the names and places, so I recommend a print version if you’re going to listen to the audiobook.

You have to be okay with isla being an unreliable narrator because she’s so naive, which isn’t necessarily her fault, but it leaves the reader in the dark and confused a lot. There are twists and turns CONSTANTLY. And when you think the climax has climaxed, you get more twists! I think this is a book that needs multiple reads to catch everything. It will be interesting to reread now that I know how it ends. I didn’t love how isla was changing alliances every chapter it seemed. She said multiple times in the book “___ is the only person I trust now.” And it changed every time a plot point happened. Like pick a lane.

I’m not a huge fan of love triangles and idk why they run rampant in YA books. Once again I see a lot of similarities with ACOTAR and Rhys/grim and tamlin/oro. Honestly I didn’t really see a lot of chemistry with either of the love interests! The story is mainly a mystery, with a small romance subplot thrown in at the end. I feel like it was done kind of poorly. Maybe I will feel differently after reading the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Murder, Death of parent, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Moderate: Kidnapping

lkristin2018's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I thought that even though Isla’s age wasn’t precisely defined, and perhaps she was legally an adult, having her love interest literally centuries older than her felt icky.  Also, the curses endured by the various kingdoms were not at all in proportion to each other.  One kingdom simply loses the ability to fly, while another one must regularly eat human hearts in order to survive, and will die if they fall in love.  I find it almost impossible to imagine a society where people exist on eating human hearts.  Even if a person only eats one a month, it means twelve other people have to die every single year of that person’s life.  It just doesn’t feel sustainable.  Yes, it’s fiction, but I can’t suspend my disbelief quite that far.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Death, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Blood and Alcohol

6 ritual suicides described as self sacrifice and a separate suicide with specific method are mentioned in the book

aiplusyou's review

mysterious fast-paced

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

1.5

i probably should have read a different book as my first book of the year

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Self harm

Minor: Vomit

selestre's review

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, and Child abuse

kaetheluise_nckl's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Child abuse

Minor: Genocide, Death of parent, and War

chandlerwood's review

adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-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

4.25

Expected to hate this book and actually loved it. It reads like a decently written YA fantasy, and everything the author promised is here. Not sure what the controversy was about because this book delivered everything it said it would and was impossible for me to put down.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Cannibalism, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury