Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman

9 reviews

bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was a nice, easy to read  historical fiction novel inspired by the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box. Both the story and the prose are nothing spectacular but I still had a fun time. It also has one of the most truly hateable out and out villains I’ve read in a while.

For a book so focused around the black market trade of antiquities, I was a bit disappointed that the role of the British Empire in plundering Greece artifacts was never really raised. There was very little nuance in relation to this subject which threw me out of the book a bit. I think it would have been a more interesting read to have that kind of topic included.

I really enjoyed the side characters (Lady Latimer being a particular favourite).

Overall glad I read this. Recommended to those looking for a nicely paced, ambiguously supernatural historical mystery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal death, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Gore, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

Minor: Kidnapping, War, and Homophobia

Instances of sexism, misogyny and homophobia etc. are in-world and consistent with the time period. They are also challenged, addresses or overcome. Also with regard to the animal death:

the villain of the story kills the main character’s pet bird. It is off-page and the description of its corpse is one line, but the instance is still upsetting.

allapaz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

wow solid atmospheric spooky historical thrilling mayhem madness, I thoroughly enjoyed the jaunt through Georgian London, lest the actually repulsive bits (though beautifully written!)

also, pour one out for our feathered friend Hermes

A solid read, a cool historical take on the mythic retellings move

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content and Sexual assault

molly_greenshields's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious relaxing slow-paced

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

3.75

Susan Stokes-Chapman certainly brings something different to the Greek retelling trend with Pandora, blending mythology with historical realism in this Georgian-style mystery. The characters were complex, the plot was fun and I found myself not wanting to put the book down once I reached the last hundred or so pages (I will  never be recovered enough to talk about Hermes). Having said that, I don't think it really needed to be 400 pages long in the first place: the prose was dense and relatively slow-moving for the most part and... there just wasn't the same lyrical beauty of Circe or Ariadne (sorry). All in all though, this was a fun read and a rather refreshing take on what's fast-becoming an over-saturated genre.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Gore

Moderate: Violence, Animal death, Death, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

gondorgirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Animal death, and Gore

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Alcoholism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

emma3674's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Great book, took some time to get interesting but very unputdownable towards the end, loved the story and the mystery involved

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Animal death, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

heather_freshparchment's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Death of parent, and Alcoholism

Minor: Physical abuse, Confinement, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Vomit

nicoles_reading_corner's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Murder, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Physical abuse, Gore, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Blood

_jaybee_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore and Physical abuse

ballgownsandbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

This... was an interesting one. It was definitely a compelling read, more and more so as it went along; the historical setting was delightfully detailed (disturbingly graphic at times, even); the writing itself was good; and Dora was easy to root for!

However - I'm not sure I can quite say I loved it. One one level, I think this book was just trying to do too much. The Author's Note says it was born out of several separate ideas that Susan Stokes-Chapman decided to put together, and I think it shows. This book is over 400 pages - it's not short - so it really shouldn't feel rushed or underdeveloped! But, several of the elements felt oddly disjointed or abrupt.

The romance, in particular, felt incredibly rushed and came totally out of nowhere: I spent almost the whole book convinced they were just going to end up as friends, and would have been completely satisfied with that - so the last-minute escalation (and a steep escalation at that) that showed up with no warning at all threw me completely off, which is not what you want at the 92%-mark!

Edward's backstory, while alluded to vaguely at several points, also felt underdeveloped and like it was just glossed over, shoehorned in at the end just for the sake of it, without the appropriate weight for the subject matter. I also felt quite removed from Edward himself, and couldn't fully get behind his perspective, and most of the side characters were pretty one-note too.

The mystery of the box, and the slight speculative element around whether or not myths and Greek gods actually exist, could have been really interesting, and there were really interesting seeds there - but unfortunately, I think overall that thread is let down by the number of other things happening around it, which stop it from being explored as fully as it could have been. The ambiguity of the ending also feels more 'unfinished' than 'deliberate choice'.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Animal death, Murder, Blood, and Gore

Minor: Physical abuse