Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

17 reviews

maeverose's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Things I liked:
The story was fun. The writing is super pretty and atmospheric. So many quotes i wanted to highlight. It was very easy for me to imagine what was being described, and i loved that. I like Lazlo a lot as a character. I like anything to do with dreams so I loved that that was a big part of the story.

Things I didn’t like:
Sarai’s chapters/the citadel chapters felt super repetitive, at least in the beginning. I was often pretty bored during those chapters. As much as I love the writing, it is overwritten at times. I think this book should’ve been about 100 pages shorter, the pacing is very slow for most of it. Also the reveals were pretty predictable but I guess that’s not super surprising for YA. It’s also very instalove. Very mild spoilers for this next part (it doesn’t have to do with the main romance, just side characters): I didn’t like the non consensual kiss played off as funny because it was a girl doing it to a guy. If the roles were reversed I don’t think it would’ve gone down the same… It’s still sexual assault no matter who’s doing it. And then when it happens again later it was still very dubious consent at first. Idk it made me feel gross.

I hate everything about that ending. I hate minya so much. Please tell me she dies a painful death in the next book. And that sparrow is able to bring sarai back to her body with her powers and then sarai and lazlo get to live happily ever after. If that doesn’t happen I’m suing. /j

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Blood, Child death, Death, Rape, Slavery, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Gore, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

There was frequent mention of female fertility and ‘becoming a woman’ once you bleed. Personally it made me uncomfortable, as an afab non binary person with zero desire to ever get pregnant.

bethy_joy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Child death, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Abandonment, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Slavery

sarah_cameron's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.75

A slow start but the characters were  interesting and well fleshed out. The last quarter was executed really well and brought my attention back to the book, excited to give the sequel a go! 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence

rvmajuliette's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional slow-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

4.75

This book proves why children are annoying

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Child abuse and Rape

hotpinkmess's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

danny_thereader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Genocide

Minor: Kidnapping, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

anushar's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious slow-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

4.0

I’m in a reading slump right now but this book was beautiful. The story itself was not incredibly exciting or as action packed as most fantasies, but the way the author described everything with such care and reverence sucked me in. The prose of this book is incredibly hyped up and for good reason, this reads like a fairy tale but more personal. I honestly adored the characters, they were complex and funny and each relatable in their own way. I feel like this book was great at subtly tackling racism, the effects of war and how those things affect peoples characters. Overall this was very well done, however I struggled a bit while reading it simply because of the slower pace of the book. 
4/5 stars!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Rape, and Xenophobia

Minor: Abandonment, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Sexual assault