Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

14 reviews

slimshaedy92's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

There are some cliches here, but overall a pretty effective ghost story once it gets moving. I say that because it definitely took me a couple of days to really get moving on such a thin book mainly because it’s been awhile since I read Gothic horror. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Animal death, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia

sucreslibrary's review against another edition

2.0

I was really enjoying this until I realized the direction the story was going. the gothic tone is well done with many poetic turns of phrase. unfortunately the eventual reveal of the "true evil" left me disappointed.

I dislike nearly any story where a child is simply "born evil", and this child being disfigured on top of that really adds to my distaste. I kept hoping that there would be a final twist reveal that the horror was not due to an evil disabled child, but that never came.

I feel like it should also be noted that there's quite a lot of period typical racism in this story, with a slur (gyp*y) being used quite often when referring to a specific character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Racial slurs, and Racism

aloy's review

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Child death, Alcoholism, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Murder, Toxic friendship, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Blood, Violence, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Medical content, Gore, Drug use, Classism, Grief, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, and Animal death

Moderate: Racism, Sexual violence, Sexism, and Racial slurs

Minor: Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

immovabletype's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

3.25

this book is perfectly paced and builds tension and fear very well. i admit i'm an easy mark when it comes to haunted houses but fwiw this definitely gave me some real chills. i flew through the last third of the book. unfortunately it fell short of its potential for me. in particular this is a historical, victorian novel steeped in the expectations on women from outside of their control and within themselves - a lot of themes of what it means for a woman to be mad, and it blurs the line a bit. i was into it, and then some reveals happened that seemed to undercut that commentary. by the time it got to its ambiguous ending (ugh) it didn't even have the power to annoy me as much as it usually does because i was already disappointed.

i can't really say much further without spoilering since my gripes hinge on a big twist, but i am going to include them (under spoilers) in my content warnings below.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Ableism, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Classism, Grief, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Gore, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Alcohol, Animal death, Confinement, Infertility, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Sexual assault, Vomit, Child abuse, and Drug use

expanding on infertility triggers, as well as additional ableism/disfigurement prejudice: there is a disfigured child who is mute due to a birth defect. it's believed she was born without a tongue because her mother used witchcraft to conceive her when she was unable to conceive. big, plot important spoilers:

this conjecture is 'proven' true; her mother allowed something evil to enter her child when she conceived her outside of natural means.

also beware of many inexplicit mentions of CSA.

diannaphantomfiction's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Parts of this were very hard to read, with time accurate racism and ableism, but the ending was quite a surprise and made for a satisfying ending

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Ableism, and Racism

adelinebal4's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Violence, Ableism, Suicide, Animal death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Incest, and Child abuse

cinderrunner's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It was slow moving for me at the start. But once i got about halfway through, it picked up substantially and i zipped through the remainder of the book. Very gothic and atmospheric. The overall mood, especially at the Bridge gives very much Wuthering Heights vibes. Concept is fun and fairly orignal. Very haunting. A little gory without being overly grotesque. Saw the end reveal coming but getting there was fun so i didnt mind. Check trigger warnings for this one cause there are a lot. I will never be okay with a modern book using slurs and stereotypes against Romani people regardless of when the book is set. The plot could have been just as successful without that nonsense so shame to the author for that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide attempt, Racism, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Gore, Xenophobia, Suicide, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Violence, Miscarriage, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Confinement

lizzyrai's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Child abuse, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Racism, Rape, Medical content, Physical abuse, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

voilajean's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Violence, Gaslighting, and Grief

midnightcomets's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• 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? It's complicated

3.75

This ending will haunt me for many days 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Child abuse, Gore, Racism, Ableism, and Misogyny

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Grief