Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl

19 reviews

nella_allen's review

adventurous dark funny sad fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, Drug use, Dementia, Torture, Bullying, Animal cruelty, and Emotional abuse

behindherpages's review against another edition

funny medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Gore, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Grief

mx_virg's review

dark emotional 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

3.0

I loved the premise and really wanted to like this book. And the base elements are there. I liked the characters, the way they come together, how the plot progresses. I like that a big part of the book focuses on female friendships. I enjoyed reading it, but I don't think much will stick with me for long.

The world building is really lacking here. How can vampires just carelessly go through the world, killing people left and right, in this day and age? The number of people they kill to feed on isn't small, and yet it's never really a concern. Nothing really is, aside from the main villain. We're given just enough to understand why things have to happen the way they do, nothing more. The vampire thing feels more like a b-plot, we're not given enough info and I wasn't that invested or interested when vampiry stuff happened as a result.

The romance started out cute, but became bland from the half-way point. And even though I liked the ending, the twists felt unnecessary and created if not plot holes, at least more questions that we won't get answers to (because we're given so little info to begin with). The writing didn't help. It wasn't bad, but didn't pull me in either.

So yeah, it's a "meh" read for me, but one I still enjoyed. I'd love to read a book on how our heroines carve a life for themselves, together, from here on out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Death, Violence, Blood, Gore, Emotional abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Gaslighting, Grief, Sexism, Abandonment, Body horror, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty, Dementia, Alcohol, Child death, Grief, Bullying, Confinement, Death of parent, and Misogyny

longlost's review

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

2.0

mmm. i really wanted to like this book. like many other reviewers i was sold on the Sapphic Vampire Revenge Story premise and while there were parts of the book that really spoke to me and made me feel like it was worth reading, the parts that bothered me were.... a bit too Much to gloss over in favour of what i did like about it. 

the good: hartl's brand of dark humour used to tell this story made it feel very engaging to me, but that's very much personal taste. i liked the characters - the core vampire trio (later quartet) were easy to love for their quirks and i found what we did learn about their backstories and histories to be genuinely interesting and at times heartbreaking. holly's issues w/ her mother also really spoke to me when they did become front and centre, and i liked

the resolution with her mother in their final scene together.

ive never really been that invested in vampire stories so im going into this world with the basics of vampire knowledge, but i really enjoyed the work hartl put into worldbuilding regarding the vampire lore. when i picked up the book to continue reading i was as much interested in seeing where the characters would go next as in how the world and the rules behind vampirism would be unraveled. which sucks because the stuff im going to talk about next really ruined whatever good aspects those parts had.

the bad (and the Ugly): so. the entire premise of the book is the three girls who were coerced by the main villain - a vampire creep who preys on vulnerable, isolated teenagers - teaming up to kill him so he can't ensnare anymore victims. and then we spend the entire book developing a romance between holly and parker of which the inherent weirdness of it is never really acknowledged ? like yea, we know that holly genuinely cares because we're reading things from her point of view and there's a lot of emphasis on how being Turned pauses you at that point in time meaning that holly is Technically still 16 but. it is just, not that simple ? she's been existing for like 30 years and parker is. a teenager. maybe there could have been ways to approach it well but here it just felt.... extremely brushed over despite a major plot point of the story being how the villain did similar things to the main character & her friends. the romance felt kinda bland too but tbf i was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt until the out of nowhere underage sex scene which very nearly made the book a DNF for me but there wasnt much of the story left at that point and i wanted to keep to my rule about having read a book in full before writing an in-depth review like this and i felt like these issues were glaring enough that they needed to be discussed in context of the story which is. as explained, never really addressed by the author other than holly being like "oh no if we date parker will eventually grow old and die" which. doesn't even begin to address the juxtaposition between the entire revenge plot and holly and parker's relationship. the overall ending seems to be contentious from reading other reviews here but tbh at that point id disengaged emotionally so i dont have any real thoughts on that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Sexism, Abandonment, Dementia, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, and Sexual content

Minor: Confinement, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

kt2e56's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

1.5

This felt like it was the author’s first time ever writing a book: so many repeated phrases, no proper sense of pacing, a romance with absolutely no chemistry or believability, the blandest dialogue, every cliché imaginable, and the most egregious crime an author could commit: ZERO depth and personality for the characters. 

Each character spoke exactly the same despite their age/time period differences. Like the entire book felt like one person arguing with themself. 

The book was told from Holly’s point of view but she had no real personality to her. 

Rose’s personality was just the author describing her outfits (and she was the only character who ever got such devoted details when it came to clothing. Everyone else might have been naked based on the lack of description they received). 

Ida’s personality was that she was supposed to be the dark, edgy one who makes “quirky” art projects using the bodies of her victims but like that’s literally it. Just that one note played over and over and over again. 

Parker was beautiful. That’s it. Beautiful (no other character had the same level of description when it came to physical appearance) and unbelievably foolish because

her little plan to help save the day in the end truly made no sense. Her being turned into a vampire made all of the hard work of the other characters feel pointless. Her romance with Holly wasn’t believable in any way. They barely knew each other. There was no genuine buildup there. None. The author couldn’t be subtle if she tried so the romance between Parker and Holly was not even remotely a surprise but it felt like it came out of nowhere because there was no actual spark or connection between the two characters, just lots of cliches and bland dialogue.

Side characters were also given just one personality trait per person.

It’s a shame this book was as bad as it was because the premise sounded great and I

love me a sapphic romance! But c’mon. Us queer women need to stop settling for mediocre books like this because we want representation so badly.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Dementia, and Sexual harassment

pineapple_queen's review

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Blood, Violence, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, and Misogyny

Moderate: Death of parent

kay_w's review

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Blood, Toxic friendship, Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, Gore, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Dementia, Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, and Stalking

hermithebs's review

emotional funny mysterious reflective 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Minor: Death of parent and Violence

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous sad fast-paced

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

1.25

Predictable, poor character development, and nothing to keep me drawn to the story. The only reason I didn’t DNF was bc it was short, I was 60% through, and I wanted to know specifics to see if it became more interesting (it didn’t). Also, Ik the age gap of the MC and the ex’s GF isn’t ~technically~ pedophilic, but come on. It’s disgusting and pedophilic and I cannot move past that!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Pedophilia, Abandonment, and Death

mals_library's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Abandonment, Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, and Dementia