Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Last Days by Brian Evenson

25 reviews

cursivewolf's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

persiefey's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Alcohol

applesodaperson's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

This book was good, but felt somehow underwhelming and a bit boring? The whole entire book felt like Kline escaping and getting recaptured over and over again. Seriously it happens like 4 times. So it felt really repetitive by the end of the book. Also there being two cults that believe in the same things really confused me because when the Pauls were first introduced I couldn't figure out if they were the same cult or an entirely different one. Also, despite how cool a cult that cuts body parts off is, I think that this book relied way to heavily on describing the amputations, and then somehow expecting the reader to be just as shocked after hearing it a hundred times. I really got sick of hearing about it by the end. I also wish they would have gone more into Kline's backstory. I really thought there would be more information or even a plot twist relating to the incident where Kline lost his arm, but there just wasn't.

I also think that giving some more backstory for him would have explained why he is so quick to go crazy and commit mass murder at the end. Because is not something a mentally healthy person does, so I feel there needed to be more explanation of his violent tendencies to show that it was within his realm of possibility.

The book also hinges on there being this supposed mystery Kline is trying to solve,

but very quickly that mystery is entirely thrown out the window, and then all suspense is gone. Because the only thing left to see is if Kline survives, but that isn't a compelling story element because the book doesn't do a good job of making the reader root or care about him.

Yeah very disappointed by this book. 
Read from the BYU library. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Violence, and Murder

icebearg's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

Definitely not for the faint of heart! Extremely disturbing subject matter that the author somehow makes more palatable by the interesting cast. The story truly encompasses what a fever dream feels like, but the reader is inticed into embracing the chaos until the very last page. A susprisingly enjoyable read! Just wish the author delved more into the main character's development (and not just physical development).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

gorbon's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

It’s Die Hard meets Jonestown. Poor Kline could not catch a break. 

Fun and brutal!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Gaslighting

heavenperry's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

slintangel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Police brutality, Medical content, and Gaslighting

archaicrobin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Definitely not for the faint of heart! Kline is kidnapped by a crazy self mutilating cult that believes amputating your limbs brings you closer to god. Kline struggles to find a way out of the nightmarish compound without losing more than he’s willing to give.

This one was uncomfortable, it was grotesque, it was violent and it was so, so weird! Despite this being only about 200 pages it took me awhile to finish because I had to put it down several times when it got too much for me. 

If you’re looking for a short but terrifying novella with a weird story, and can ha die some pretty graphically grotesque imagery, check this one out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

mikepalumbo's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

booking_along's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

This book was a bit of a mess. 

the idea itself of a person somehow getting into a cult for some reason and that cult starting to cut of prices of humans. 

this idea of being in that situation having to cut of body parts of someone alive is horrifying. so there’s the horror aspect. 

but there is no explanations, no reasons given and no actual answers as to how or why Kline was even in that situation in the first place. 

this book counts mostly on shock factors and brutality in stead of good writing, characters with characteristics or actual plot. 

that’s not something that works for me. 

i need something beside just one thing slowly building up on the next with similar horrific moments happening one after the other. 

for what this did? it was doing it too drawn out and slow on to many pages. 

it would have worked so much better if the entire thing would just have been about kline being in the situation of having to mutilate himself and what happens if he doesn’t and leave it at that’s 

this wasn’t for me and i can’t really see why people would love it other than enjoying the repetitive gore and violence like a horrendously bad horror movie with bo budged. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Murder