Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry

65 reviews

sizzlesteaks's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Medical trauma, Violence, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Murder

everydaylifewithkat's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

4.75

What a crazy domestic thriller. I really didn’t like the father/husband in this book. Absolutely love a book that challenges your own opinions regarding nature v nature in a child.

Cannot wait to read more from the author

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Vomit, Violence, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, and Child abuse

vivireads99's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-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? Yes

3.75

Some of the twists and turns felt a little cliche. There were also a few info dumps I found unnecessary. Chris is probably one of the most annoying characters I have read. The ending is also odd, I don’t mind that it isn’t happy but it feels thrown together.  Other than that the plot kept me engaged!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Vomit

haleyp898's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Violence, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Torture, Ableism, Abandonment, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, and Confinement

gothreads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.25

Was not here for the fatphobia or the cliche of the dad being blind to everything going on. Was very slow and didn’t have enough meat.

Even when we were in hannah’s pov it didn’t feel like she was having a mental breakdown.

 And the ending was anticlimactic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Fatphobia, Violence, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, and Vomit

cmarie825's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder and Violence

katiereadsbooks23's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Violence, Excrement, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Animal death, Grief, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent, Addiction, and Drug use

kenziehutch5's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Infertility, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, and Panic attacks/disorders

queerbookworm's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

I enjoyed it overall but there were some specific parts that were really hard to listen to. A good story if you want to listen to (or read but i listened) something incredibly distracting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Child abuse, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Grief, Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, and Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage

yunsq's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

3.5

Read content warnings first before reading the book!!

I am struggling to rate this one. Don’t get me wrong, I devoured the book in 3 days. The fastest I’ve read since I’ve gotten into a reading slump in the last months. I say struggle because of how dark, stomach-churning and unsettling the story is, and anxiety-inducing it was for me. 

Not to say that the ending was too open for my liking. I felt like I pulled through all of the front bits for no reward lol. Perhaps it was meant to replicate real life? Where there really isn’t a well-crafted ending?? Maybe we don’t really have to know how the couple would react to the news for us to acknowledge that evil exists? It also didn’t sit right with me that we quickly went from trauma-informed behaviour to born-evil conclusions. Could’ve been handled better and with more sensitivity, in my opinion. 

Another review mentioned how the world-building and some of the major events were contradicting throughout the multi-POV chapters, or even just completely forgotten. This I absolutely agree with. 

Overall, maybe a 3? I’m not really sure what to feel about it. Other than my lingering fear from the story maybe. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Violence, Infertility, and Torture

Moderate: Death, Excrement, Animal death, and Vomit