Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry

65 reviews

leer_amor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Child abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Death of parent, Excrement, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Physical abuse

smixter88's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Let me start by saying HOLY SH*T, what a wild ride. It's a very disturbing read, but man does Lucinda Berry nail it. Go in blind if you don't have triggers. If you do, you must look them up, because this book may not be for you. She kept me hooked from the very first page. I can't wait to read the second novella for this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Abandonment, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, and Torture

brookey8888's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.25

This book is so hard to rate and review. The whole time I was reading it I was so uncomfortable and honestly annoyed with certain characters. I felt like this was obvious and it’s more of a thriller not a mystery at all. I didn’t see one thing happen, but I thought something along those lines was going to happen so it wasn’t that shocking to me. It was interesting to see how this all played out.

All that being said I could not stand Christopher. At first I liked him just fine, but then he was just down playing everything and not listening to his wife and then listening to her to much(not getting help when she doesn’t want it but everyone is struggling). Like you see your wife struggling(losing weight, not sleeping, not eating, losing hair) and you don’t think of any solution to help? Then he literally just brushed everything Janie did off. Like obviously(before we knew what we find out) she was abused, but that doesn’t mean you let her get away with everything(he didn’t really but everything took him forever to agree or see). Honestly Hannah should divorce him. And honestly after she killed her cat they literally didn’t do anything I feel like. Like yeah they were in a wait list, but obviously she was a danger. 

Also I hated the ending. Like it ended on a happyish note, but we don’t get to see the reactions of the bad/good news(depending on who’s receiving it). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Infertility, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Physical abuse

kotashomelibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, and Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

wyabook234's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Child abuse, and Abandonment

Minor: Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Medical content

minimicropup's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Atmosphere 😕: Claustrophobic and uneasy. Some imagination crashing happens because minor details like appearance or locations are unnecessarily delayed in the story after readers may have already formed their own imaginings. Has a touch of "the" syndrome ("the bedroom by the family room", "the living room") where the layout of the house was confusing at times. 

Main POVs:

• A police interview with an overwhelmed social worker trying their best in a job where they are often forced to cut corners and make snap decisions on which families need their attention most
• An orthopedic surgeon eager to become a parent. Has a bit of Saviour complex particularly for children...can their unconditional love and lack of discipline heal a damaged child or are they making it worse by ignoring the reality of the situation?
• A nurse married to the surgeon, also eager to become a parent. Wants to adopt a baby they can raise together and isn't interested in raising an older child that would be dealing with trauma/abandonment issues. Do they have unrealistic, resentment filled expectations of parenthood or are they trying to set realistic boundaries and recognizing their limitations?

Cred Rating 👍👨‍👩‍👧: Plausible to realistic. Social workers are overwhelmed, the foster system is broken. Whether innate or caused, little brains aren't always wired right and some kids seem doomed to grow up into inherently dangerous people. But some of those same behaviours can also be little brains just trying to process massive traumas. Reminiscent of the Sabrina Caldwell case https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sabrina-caldwell-adoped-russia-brother-48-hours/

Reading Journey 🫥: Visiting someone's house for the first time and it's unexpected chaos - messy, smelly, kids running wild, no one seems to be doing anything about it...eyeing the door the whole time, can't wait to leave.

Good match if you like:

• Dark adoption and parenting dysfunction
• Creepy kid trope that isn't OTT (IRL horror energy with touch of supernatural possession vibes)
• Potentially unreliable narrator (paranoia/psychosis) treated with "pat pat, you're just hysterical honey" spousal support
• Kids behaving badly
• Flexible plot open to reader interpretation

Vibes: 🤢😡🤪

Content Heads-Up: infertility, adoption gone wrong, attachment and personality disorders in children, and death of a pet

cat, due to torture

Format: Kindle Unlimited

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Murder, Infertility, Death, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Confinement, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, and Excrement

Animal related content involves

death of a cat at the hands of a child

. Medical content comes from the MCs being a surgeon and nurse, and the child being hospitalized for injuries. Medical trauma involves

biting, breast injury and infection, broken bones, birth, and mental illness in a hospital setting

uchihas's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

A fairly predictable story but the writing style, while a little flat in the beginning, was easy to read and flowed well. The story kept me interested regardless! Most of the characters were likable but Christopher was INFURIATING most of the time, and I wasn’t a fan of the ending even though it was the logical turn of events - just felt like things could’ve been tied up a bit more neatly. 

Please be aware there’s a somewhat graphic depiction of animal cruelty at one point! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Excrement, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Vomit, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Drug abuse, and Drug use

laurapaige's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, Excrement, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Abandonment, Child abuse, and Vomit

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse, Death, and Miscarriage

allielippe's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The authors epilogue was cut on the editing floor, but she reads it on YouTube, it makes a much more satisfying ending than the book. Wish it had stayed in! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Mental illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, Child abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Violence, and Vomit

emmasbookishself's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

WOW, what a ride!

If you enjoy creepy, dark, psychological thrillers this one is for you. I don’t want to give much away, but this is a quick one that will keep you on the edge of your seat. (This was amazing on audio) 

There’s an obvious level of insight and knowledge within this book as the author is also a trauma psychologist, and she was able to use that to really set the emotion and scenes. 

I went into this one blind, but would recommend  he king TWs before reading as it deals with seriously heavy subject matter. 

Hannah and Christopher were ready to start a family of their own, without much luck. They exhausted many resources and are now looking at adoption as an option. 

A child severely abused and mistreated has been taken to the hospital that both Hannah and Christopher work at. Christopher is involved with Janie right away as he would be the one performing many of her surgeries to correct and heal prior injuries. 

Christopher develops a sense of obligation to protect and look after Janie, and she too is completely smitten with Christopher. With Janie’s stay at the hospital nearing its end, Christopher knows Janie will need to be placed in a foster home temporarily. No foster family that has been interviewed seems to be the right fit, so Christopher suggests to Hannah that they temporarily foster her. After all, they‘d be one of the most equipped couples to help Janie, both medically and financially. 

Fostering Janie has been no easy feat there’s endless battles, from screaming for no reason, reverting back to old habits, and plain cruelty. Despite the challenges they decide to adopt Janie officially. Everything goes as well as expected (meaning every day is still a challenge), until it all takes a very sharp downturn when Hannah gets pregnant and brings baby Cole home… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Violence, Physical abuse, and Mental illness