Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver

82 reviews

autumn017's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

anne6's review against another edition

dark lighthearted mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Rape

purplemermaid's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

 “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye, and then that’s when the real fun begins.” Imagine Dexter as a rom-com with a healthy dose of smut, and you’ve got Butcher & Blackbird. It’s dark, twisted, and yet somehow incredibly fun. This book surprised me in the best way possible! Sloane and Rowan are serial killers, but somehow, they’re also completely adorable—and yes, I can’t believe I’m calling serial killers "adorable." The characters are so well-written that you end up relating to them in ways you never expected.

The book is packed with fantastic descriptions, sharp humor, and unforgettable moments. That said, it comes with all the trigger warnings. It doesn’t shy away from tough topics, but if you can handle them, it’s an unforgettable ride. Highly recommend for fans of dark romance and unconventional storytelling! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

nowakatie's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.5

Fun concept, nice spice, LOVED the voice actors in the audiobook. However,

where are the cops in this town? They keep leaving what I feel like is a HEAPING paper and DNA trail at all of their murders. Naming your restaurant BUTCHER AND BLACKBIRD is a crazy thing to do if you’re trying to avoid detection. Having sex at a murder scene is a huge pool of DNA I fear. I wish there was more description dedicated to how they clean the murder scenes up to avoid detection.

A bit less based in reality than Lights Out, but still fun and lots of banter. Time jumps irked me though as I felt it took away from time we could have been getting to know these characters separately. I still don’t know what Sloane does for work.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Torture, Vomit, Medical content, and Stalking

Minor: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

gtabor's review

adventurous dark funny tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

kokod's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

teelii's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.25

This was a fun book. The MMC was more intriguing and interesting than the FMC. I listened on audible and think that the narrator made me more intrigued to finish this book. Had I read it on my own then I don’t think I would have finished it. The pacing is crazy fast and sometimes confusing. There were alot of time skips and jumps, even in the middle of chapters. Sometimes I had to go back and reread several paragraphs. It’s like a rom-com (the main characters have okay banter back and forth) but if it was Dexter or something lol 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

now_booking's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-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

3.0

I’m not quite sure what I was expecting when I got into this but I didn’t expect the horror, blood, gore, dark humour this delivered in spite of the synopsis. The premise is that serial killers (whose victims of choice are serial killers) Rowan and Sloane meet when they go to take care of a serial killer. There is instant attraction and they develop a friendship and competition to bag the worst serial killers while falling in love. But Sloane’s past trauma makes her doubt whether she’s loveable and Rowan’s love manifests as worry for Sloane and the couple has to find their way.

This was interesting and in its way darkly humorous. I just think it was a bit too gory and gross for me. Maybe too dark as well and I say this being an avid reader of dark romance. This was dark in a horror way. If you enjoy movies like Scary Movie or think a parody of a serial killer psychological drama might be your speed, this might be your book. As humorous and readable as this was, I did think it was missing a bit of character and plot development - terrible incidents in Sloane and Rowan’s pasts are alluded to, but it is never quite said what these incidents are, the murders are pretty public and bloody and theatrical yet they do not fear being caught by the police or anyone else, there’s no tension or conflict about getting caught in the act and we’re never quite sure why. Indeed the why of the plot is a little shallow and weak where there could have been a bit more depth and robustness to make the reader sit up a bit so that there are 4 years summarized in a quarter page of text messaging and an annual meet up for a gory murder. The relationships between Sloane and her BFF Lane and between Rowan and his brothers  are surfacey at best when they could have been developed to give us more insights about Sloane and Rowan as characters and make us care a bit more about the secondary cast of friends and siblings who are clearly going to be important in the other books in the trilogy. The sparing detail provided about the characters does not align with the gratuitously explicit nature of the rest of the book and I think that kept this from being a proper 5 star read for me in addition to the matter of it being not quite my taste. It was a bit too spoofy for me without that character and plot development. That said, this WAS sexy and darkly humorous in a horror movie way and I’d recommend it to lovers of horror, gore and dark romance.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse

poppybunnie's review

challenging dark funny fast-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Cannibalism

lasteinbrook's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

It’s a book about serial killers, so there’s some generally messed-up murder and chaos