Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Cress by Marissa Meyer

12 reviews

noellegrace8's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

4.75

The plot really saves this one for me. It's gotten so intricate at this point that it's impossible not to enjoy it! The epitome of a great storyline. So good. But I am going to rant about one piece that bothered me, but not enough to affect my rating much:

While I love Thorne SO much, and understand Cress and her lack of social interaction and therefore knowledge even if I personally find her to be a little exhausting, the *way* their romance is written really irks me. It's entirely limmerance from Cress and nothing from Thorne until random moments. These random moments are thrilling, with scenes written better than even Cinder+Kai or Scarlet+Wolf, but they're not enough to make up for the underlying underdevelopment of their actual romance throughout the rest of the book. The entirety of them crashing in the desert fell flat for me. My personal "I hate the miscommunication trope!" is, "I hate the 'I don't want to hurt her' trope!" And that's (sort of? It's unclear, and therefore infuriating, at times) what we're given from Thorne.

Hoping the 4th book quickly clears up the limmerance from Cress and intermittent apathy from Thorne. It's a WONDERFUL series.

I don't factor audiobook performance into my star ratings, but I would give Rebecca Soler a 4.5/5. At this point, I've gotten very used to her narration and voicing. As previously stated, she can be a bit too flat at times or have a tone that isn't quite right for what's described, but she's generally good at differentiating voices in scenes with accents and tones. I really like the way she voices Iko haha. It's perfect for that android! I don't understand why Soler wasn't asked to re-record a couple places where she says "kAY-toe" instead of "kEYE-toe" though.

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melissaslibraryy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted sad medium-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

This book was more of a 4.8⭐️ simply bc Cress wasn’t my favorite of the female characters but I still enjoyed getting to know her and her backstory. Her naivety and awkward social skills made me cringe even though I understood that she grew up in solitude so ofc her social cues were out of whack, but seeing them happen was still 😵‍💫 Regardless, I love that we’re getting closer to defeating Queen Levana especially since Kai is now involved in the action. Looking forward to reading the next book :)

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msradiosilence's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.5

TLDR; 3.5 rating, age gaps, and once again no setting descirptions.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

Well, I can’t always have nice things. Once again, Meyer seems allergic to describing her settings in any detail, and once again it’s set in a culture that she, as a white woman, has no claim on. As such, and additionally with my other gripe, this is the beginning of the Lunar Chronicles downhill plummet.

Much like in Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares, I hate age gaps like the one in Cress. Cress is 16. She’s a child. And Thorne is a grown ass man. It’s especially icky because he pushes her away not because she’s a child but because he doesn’t think he’s good enough for her. So, gross. Hate it. Also, their miscommunication drives me nuts. I hate miscommunication plots.

I also don’t like that
Dr. Erland is reveled as Cress’ dad in this book and it’s literally mentioned ONCE in the next one.
I feel like that’s information that is relevant, not only to Cress but to her emotional stability in the next installment? But nope.
There’s no mourning, she’s fine after finding her dad and then watching him die.


Rating: 3.5
Would I recommend? Kind of, especially if you enjoy age gaps, found family and literally found family, and sci-fi fairytale retellings.

Content warnings: Death, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Genocide, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Ableism, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Dementia, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Violence, War, Medical content, and Torture

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roget's review

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adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75


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carrotsxcks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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? Yes

5.0


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tiana_king's review against another edition

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

4.5

A good edition to the series. I found Cress less relatable than Cinder and Scarlett but other than that the plot was amazing. It does take quite a while for the group to meet back up after they split which was annoying. However quite a few minor and some major questions are answered in this book and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

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woolgathering_jane's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? No

5.0

“I promise, I will not let you die without being kissed.” 
Oh, this was so good. The pacing and twists were excellent, and I had a blast while reading. Seriously, I haven't read something this entertaining in some time (I need to pick better books, I know). Six hundred pages flew by and I can't wait to get my hands on the final book. Easily the best book in the series, if only for the many laugh-out-loud moments (mainly because of Thorne).

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risten's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0


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inkysplodge's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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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cadybooks's review against another edition

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

3.0


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