Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft by Jessica Spotswood, Tess Sharpe

4 reviews

msradiosilence's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Tldr; Besides roughly 4 stories being not great, this book is such a fun and heartbreaking read. It even includes the short story that eventually becomes The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina!!

Read my full review at: https://www.rainyreader.com/single-post/toil-and-trouble
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abception's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

A few of the stories were quite lacklustre, in my opinion - but the stories that HIT, absolutely H I T and resonated a lot, so pulled my rating up a fair bit.

Starsong by Tehlor Kay Mejia (aka sapphic trauma-ridden astrologist flirts with some Insta NASA troll): 2.5 stars!
  • I didn't love this story, but didn't hate it either; I was really just indifferent to it
Afterbirth by Andrea Cremer: 4 stars!
  • I absolutely loved this one! I'm a big fan of Salem/witch trials-themed stories, so this story was absolutely perfect for me.
The Heart in Her Hands by Tess Sharpe: 5 stars!
  • When I read this sapphic glory, I doubted anything else in the collection could top it... before I encountered even more sapphic glory later on...
Death in the Sawtooths by Lindsay Smith: 3 stars.
  • I didn't hate it, I didn't love it. I felt it was much too big a concept to do in such a short word count.
The Truth About Queenie by Brandy Colbert: 3.5 stars!
  • I loved how complicated and messy the emotional undertone of the story was, but I still felt like it was missing something.
The Moonapple Menagerie by Shveta Thakrar: 2 stars.
  • I wanted to like this much more than I did - the concept is something that very much did appeal to me, but the execution just didn't spark with me.
The Legend of Stone Mary by Robin Talley: 4.5 stars!
  • I really, really enjoyed this one! Sapphics + small town vibes + angry women = >:)
The One Who Stayed by Nova Ren Suma: 1 star. 
  • Definitely should have come with a TW for SA.
  •  I could see what the author was going for, but I think they really missed the mark - in the end, the story just left me feeling very uncomfortable. 
Divine Are the Stars by Zoraida Córdova: 1 star. 
  • Genuinely just not even memorable - like, fr, I cannot even remember what this was about, just that I was very confused while reading it. 
Daughters of Baba Yaga by Brenna Yovanoff: 5 stars! 
  • This was another one that I read and thought would not be topped (until I continued) - the plot, admittedly, was pretty standard fare for YA; but, the writing was just chef's kiss, bellissimo! I loved it!  
The Well Witch by Kate Hart: 4 stars!
  • This one was a funky read for me. I'm usually not a fan of frontier/Western-type fiction, but I actually really enjoyd this one! It gave off Holes by Louis Sachar vibes, if ya feel me. 
Beware of Girls with Crooked Mouths by Jessica Spotswood: 2 stars.
  • I just felt really ambivalent and underwhelmed by this one, tbh.
Love Spell by Anna-Marie McLemore: 5 stars!
  •  Classic McLemore! Trans glory at it's finest!
The Gherin Girls by Emery Lord: 5 stars!
  • This one was just so FREAKING SOFT AND EMOTIONAL! I actually could have cried, it resonated so well! I adored it!
Why They Watch Us Burn by Elizabeth May: 5 stars!
  • Gayest sh*t I ever done read. I loved it. Actually perfect. My favourite story of the bunch.
  • Am I about to bingeread everything by May and become a stan in the new year: probably. 
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eviecook0708's review

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

4.25

This was a really cool anthology! Some of the stories weren't necessarily my thing, but there were more than enough gems to make up for it. The writing styles, stories, and characters were very diverse, and the theme of the anthology was really interesting to me. I felt like this was also a really good sampler of the work of all the contributors, and I now have a little list of writers I need to read more from! The only reason this is only 4 stars is the presence of one story I felt actually detracted from the anthology (just my opinion), but other than that, it was a good read.
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kodiex's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-paced
  • 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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