Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith

22 reviews

hugsowls's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Trafficking, Torture, Suicide, Rape, Physical abuse, Murder, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Slavery, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Violence, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Grief, Confinement, Child death, Child abuse, Bullying, and Blood

kitpotter's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Gaslighting, Incest, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Dementia

wifeslife's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Self harm, Cancer, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Death, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Suicide, Sexual assault, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child death, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail

froukjereads's review against another edition

3.5

This was far too long. 

I read it to see where she would take Cormoran and Robin, and I’ll give her some stars for that. It was much better than the ink-black heart, and I love Strike and Robin as much as I hate the author. 

I feel like JKR needs to stop putting her real life grievances into her books (last time it was cancel culture, now she has

conflated a scientology-like cult with woke ideology

. Her obsession with fat people and all the fat shaming really needs to stop too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Confinement, Dementia, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Child abuse, Violence, Child death, Miscarriage, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Pregnancy, Trafficking, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

I cannot believe the number of content warnings I have had to add to this book.

coolbeans995's review

dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I love these books so much. This was miles better than "The Ink Black Heart" in my opinion.

Probably one of my favorite in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Blood, Suicide, Child abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Trafficking, Violence, and Adult/minor relationship

lukerik's review against another edition

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? No

4.0

That’s Cromer Pier on the cover.  I’ve sat on that bench.  In the previous novels I’d follow them around London on streetview.  In Cromer and Norwich I could do it in my mind’s eye which was rather pleasing.  Though the street where Strike interviews those four people doesn’t exist.  Perhaps for legal reasons, Cromer being so small.  Also, it wasn’t clear to me exactly where they set up the stall in Norwich.  I though at first the junction of London and Castle Streets, but they don’t have stalls there, so perhaps somewhere on Gentleman’s Walk where they do.  It all feels very real.  There were a couple of points where Strike and Robin were speaking privately where I’d catch myself thinking ‘I shouldn’t be listening to this.’

Anyway, at one point a character gets a bit flustered and says:

‘Like, he got what it’s like, to be… what it feels like, not to be… like, to be different, you know?’

Beautifully observed.  And when characters say ‘only’ with a silent l she writes it o’ny.  If she’d gone for ony or on’y my eye would have seen it as a short o.  We’re lucky to get this level of detail in a writer’s work.  This book has been published by Hachette.  There are a few typos but it’s pretty easy to work out which word is missing or substituted.

It’s not really a spoiler to say that in this one Robin goes undercover in a cult.  It happens pretty early on, though this being a 1000 page book that’s a relative term.  I found these chapters really tense.  It was a relief when it would cut back to Strike.  We’re not talking Sarah Waters levels of tense, but I’ve not seen Rowling maintain that level of danger-tension for so long before.  Sexual tension, yes.

So the main theme of the novel appears to be social withdrawal.  I can’t mention some of the big examples because it’d spoil the plot, but one big one would be the cult members withdrawing physically from their friends and family.  Robin is in a sense withdrawing from Murphy by going undercover.  Other withdrawals are via death, which is a very rude way of doing it if you ask me.  Not all withdrawals are voluntary.  Strike’s uncle for example cannot help his withdrawal as his mind collapses.

This brings us to the second bit theme, personal agency.  To what extent are the cult members responsible for their withdrawal and actions generally when they’ve been brainwashed?  It’s a very humane novel.

It’s also well balanced.  In withdrawing into the cult, the members are also joining a new society, and in leaving the cult are re-entering the new one.  The prime example of this social insertion, this leap of faith comes in the epilogue.  Be careful what reviews you read before getting to it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Dementia, Confinement, Slavery, Suicide, Child abuse, Child death, Bullying, Death, and Sexual assault

marlisenicole's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Moderate: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Cursing, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Torture, Dementia, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

sheshu45's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Tension built steadily and from halfway through was completely gripped. Did not want to spend much time with some of the characters, apart from our heroes of course! It was long but the story warranted the length I think. Some complicated explanations in tying things up. But overall a satisfying ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

I love all the Cormoran Strike books - they get better and better with increasing complexity of Strike and Robin’s characters. There are complaints that this one, at close to 1000 pages, is too long, but I found the story so riveting that I never felt the plot was unnecessarily long. The occasional dry humor is a relief from all the tension - it feels good to laugh when there’s nothing remotely laughable about the story as a whole. 

This entry in the series is particularly horrific. I knew the part about Robin going undercover in a cult was going to be tense but I didn’t know it would be quite as terrifying as it was. I found myself consumed with dread as I read it and kept having to stop and pull back from the story. 

I did have trouble keeping the relationships of the characters straight. There were a lot of people and parentage wasn’t always what the cult leaders claimed. The next time I read this I’ll make a cheat sheet so I can remember who’s who. 

I’m already looking forward to the next in the series. I hope there are a lot more books to come. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Excrement, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicide, Trafficking, Violence, Abandonment, Child abuse, Confinement, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Bullying, Death, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

emilyhof613's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

This was the best of the series so far in my opinion! Great character development and plot building - kept me guessing right until the end! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Mental illness, Murder, Suicide, Violence, Dementia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Trafficking, Drug abuse, Confinement, Death, and Emotional abuse