Reviews tagging 'Blood'

These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall

9 reviews

selendrea's review

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.75

These Fleeting Shadows was such a whirlwind of discoveries, twists, emotion, and beautiful prose! I was pleasantly surprised with how superbly written many passages in this novel were. The author has a tremendous skill at using vivid metaphor and sentence structure to convey meaning, and it kept me very interested for the entirety of the book.

The plot of this novel went in a completely different direction than I had expected in the absolute best way. I understand that a lot of readers had some difficulty with keeping up with the twists and turns, but I felt that information was revealed at just the right pace, and the important points were reiterated multiple times. Watching all of the pieces come together at the end was so satisfying for me.

Another strength of this book is it's character development - I truly adored (most) of the characters by the last page. The way they interacted with one another additionally felt realistic and warm. Helen had to grow on me; she originally comes off as "not like other girls," but... it's true. She truly is not like other girls. If you know you know. For that reason, I'll allow it.

I would say my only critique is that the dialogue occasionally felt a bit juvenile. But since this novel is technically young adult, and many of the main characters are literally teens, it makes sense within the greater context of the story. At times, however, I felt it contrasted a bit harshly with the seriousness and grandiose aspects of the plot.

All in all, These Fleeting Shadows is both simultaneously a sweet, sapphic coming of age story and a dark, insidious tale that considers and explores classism, how we form our own self-concept, family pressures, what it means to be human, and the selfishness of man. I highly recommend it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Blood, and Classism

Minor: Alcohol

julieyael's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

Lovely haunting mystery, anchoring supernatural to our world. A bit gothic, a bit fantastic, a bit creepy. 
I would have loved it more with less teenage characters (harder for me to identify as I am over 40), but it would have worked less, I guess. 
I couldn’t put the book down so that’s a good sign☺️
Not rating higher because of some details that annoyed me, and the romance which I don’t really care for. The characters are interresting, even if a bit simplistic/stereotyped. 
I loved the global rythm of the story and could re-read it with pleasure. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Medical content, Death of parent, and Murder

shadowykittenwizard's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Blood, Death of parent, and Alcohol

sai_like_sigh's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Cursing, Infidelity, Blood, Death of parent, and Classism

Unreliable narrator, reality called into quest, inte se doubt

ilaxaria's review

dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Blood, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, and Death of parent

alexijai98's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

czoltak's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

My least favorite from this author so far. The premise and initial set up were super intriguing, but after that it got super repetitive, confusing, and boring. Also that ending was absolutely not for me. I can tell there are people who will love and really vibe with this, I’m just unfortunately not one of them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

lilifane's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

What a pleasant surprise, I didn't expect to love this book so much. 
This is a creepy, atmospheric gothic haunted house story with queer representation, really good themes and a satisfying ending. There are not many of those out there. 
Although it's YA, it's also very dark. It deals with violence against girls, and there is gore. I would recommend for the upcoming spooky season, if you haven't read it yet. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

harmonique's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Homophobia and Racism