Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Fairest by Marissa Meyer

42 reviews

cortanasreadingnook's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

Fairest gives an insight to Levana Blackburn’s miserable life and how she came to be the queen of Luna as we read throughout the books. Marissa Meyer did a great job portraying this villain because there wasn’t any justification for her terrible behavior but merely reason. I really tried to sympathize with her, but she truly is a psycho that only yearned for love and acceptance in the most wicked way she could conjure those feelings up. She’s a manipulator and a power-hungry queen that reflects most world leaders today and their endless greed. Overall, this novella allows the readers to give their own judgement towards an iredeemable, powerful, yet badly scarred woman. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, and Violence

melissaslibraryy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Oh Levana, you crazed delusional woman, how many lives you’ve ruined including your own bc of your own selfishness and childish crush. The way she could’ve turned out a normal princess had her parents actually given a fuck about her and had her own sister not set her on fire and scarred her for life (physically & emotionally.) If therapy was a thing on Luna TRUST that Levana should’ve been first at the door 😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, Classism, Death, Ableism, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Medical trauma, Grief, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual harassment and Sexual violence

inkysplodge's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Child death

amschelly153's review

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The backstory is sometimes hard to read but also well written. Informative and dark, but helpful to know.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Abandonment, Death of parent, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, and Bullying

h4wk1nz's review

dark fast-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? Yes

4.0

a good quick read, i read 60 pages last night and the rest this evening. i always find marissa meyer’s books to be easy to read and flow well, so it was very enjoyable and light.

i must admit i found myself confused at times, thinking i’d missed something but in most of those situations it was explained on the next page.
so while that was a little off putting for a split second, i was never completely lost and have not been left with any lingering questions about those moments.

overall this was a great read and i am as usual blown away by meyer’s ability to tell a story so fluidly even in this ‘unconventional’ time skipping style.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Child abuse, Bullying, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

not major but not minor spoiler:

Levana manipulates a man older than her into marrying her

nmetz's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Fairest is a great prequel to the Lunar Chronicles filling in some of the holes and misinformation we had before. This book truly dives into why lunars have this dark past. Why there are preconceived notions about the lunars and why Levana did do what she did why she had the drive to do what she did. So a quick summary of the book SPOILERS AHEAD Levana falls in love with a man named Evert Hale but he is already married. Sadly Evert's wife dies in childbirth so Levana decides to try to get close to him and she starts manipulating him into thinking that he is in love with her and starts driving him insane. Then Levana sees the former queen's daughter who is the only other heir to the throne she kills her using fire. More events happen and at the end of the story kills the man she drove insane in her quest for love and she decides love is a conquest love is a war. This book shows how you can use love. You can use it like a tool or a weapon or you can let love use you and guide you through life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gaslighting, and Child death

bean_7088's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Whoops what a doozy! Murderous queen backstory makes her worse!

Like, part of it is sad, like spoiled kids growing up sheltered in the nasty circles they do makes for horrible people and children.. but she had chances to be a better person. 

I still loved the writing 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Rape, Death, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

Basically the evil queen has been abused and then she abuses, manipulates, forces her husband into sleeping with her.

socialpsysteph's review

adventurous emotional tense fast-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

4.0

I love this series and have been meaning to get to this prequel as well as the short story collection. I was so intrigued to hear Levana's backstory. She is a great villain throughout the main story and just so awful so I was interested to hear her origin story. I definitely feel that this gives some perspective to why she was the way she was. There were a few times I started to feel bad for her and then remembered all of the terrible things she ends up doing, then I felt less bad. All of the royal family is pretty awful and just do terrible things to each other. I must read as you are making your way through the Lunar Chronicles.

This book counts for Popsugar 2023 for a book written during NaNoWriMo.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Murder

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Infertility

novelnerd_11's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Bullying, Child death, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

Minor: Infertility

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

“Here is what I think of love.” Is the last line of the book and I think it sums it up pretty well. 

When starting the book I was hoping that it would humanize Levana a little bit and make us like her more, but I was wrong. It was annoying because I feel that when you are reading about a villain you want to know what events led to them Losing their humanity, but it seemed Levana never had any. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child abuse, Murder, Blood, Child death, Grief, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Body horror

Moderate: Pregnancy, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: War, Sexual content, Bullying, Gore, and Pandemic/Epidemic