Reviews tagging 'Child death'

A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw

13 reviews

em815ily's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

greylandreviews's review

Go to review page

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

2.25

 If this book was just about Travis and the cult I probably would've loved this book. But after his chapters the plot just became jumbled. The ending was very anticlimactic and left me wanting more.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

blissofalife's review

Go to review page

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

3.5

I spent most of the book confused, and the twists and explanations felt like a reach but a very original plot and like-able main characters. “The Village (2004)” vibes.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kristinv20's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark 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? No

3.25

this had a great premise but it just ended up being really underwhelming, i called the big twist less than a third of the way into the book and didn't really have fun putting together all the pieces like i did with other thrillers i figured out fast. the ending was kind of underwhelming and the process of getting there just didn't click well for me. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

yomireads's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective 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

3.25

A compelling read with vivid descriptions and rich characters. I do wish it hadn't presented itself as supernatural when it read more as a mystery thriller, but I still liked it from start to finish.
I personally found it disappointing for such an intriguing psychic ability to be introduced and then nearly entirely ignored for the entirety of the book. Pairing this sense of supernatural ability with the implied sickness of the forest and the inclusion of limes from the haunting children's book really gave a sense that there would be at least a hint of magic involved, and it felt less like a red herring twist, and more like a failure to meet expectations. I appreciate that subverting the reader's expectation provided more impact to the twist, and so still enjoyed the read, even if it felt a bit like a promise broken.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mlovesbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

It took me a bit to get into the swing of this book, but I did like it the farther along it went.

Bee was my favorite character.
Glad she got her justice and knifed Levi, an abusive ass.


All in all, a good and interesting read.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.0

The History of Wild Places gave me Twin Peaks meets The Sun Down Motel and Tana French. Not my favourite, I thought there would be more flashes through time. Instead, this book mostly focused on the setting of Pastoral. But even the purpose of focusing so much on a setting, such as building a sense of dread, or even giving us time to connect with the characters and community, were missing. If you enjoy cultish elements and slow burn plot-focused books, then this is for you!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

saturdayslaughter's review against another edition

Go to review page

Wasn’t in the mood for something dark and it didn’t engage me. Was kind of nice sometimes when you got the flow of it, and it’s a cool power the guy has. Sometimes it was unintentionally cheesy, ‘the shell was a memory from our childhood, broken, just like she was’ like damn you didn’t have to put that last bit in. It made me laugh at it a couple times. Kept thinking that they shouldn’t have restated how he hoped finding the woman would give him closure from
not finding his sister in time
, you only needed it once and just leave it implied. It was kind of weird that it didn’t leave you to stew in his emotions, it just stated them. Would have felt more desperate if he wasn’t stating again and again that this is his last hope for recovery. And when the POV switched I found the new voices real annoying. I just don’t care enough to stick around for the actual interesting answers and his probably cool interactions with this isolated cult. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

dalmavatai's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious tense medium-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? No

3.0

This book... was a mixed bag. I loved the mystery: the books about Eloise, the charms on the necklace, the diaries, the setup was all so creative and gripping that I couldn't wait to find out what was going on. And I will say that I really liked the twists, I thought they were very satisfying and well done. For the mystery and the twists alone I do think this book was worth reading.

However, I just thought that the characters were quite bland and I didn't much care for them, and I didn't care about the nature/commune aspects either. This book kind of made me realize that I don't enjoy reading about a commune because it's just not something that I'm particularly interested in learning about. If it had gone darker I perhaps would have enjoyed it more because I do think I'm interested in reading about cults, but alas I was a bit bored for long stretches of reading this book. It was also too long in my opinion but my lack of enjoyment obviously contributes to me feeling that way. 

An overall meh setting and bland characters with a very gripping mystery and a good payoff - a very mixed bag. 

I will also say that without going into spoilers, I was not a fan of the disability (blind) representation at all, I thought it was a plot point that could've been handled with a lot more care which wouldn't have had the outcome that we ended up getting. It's a bit cheap so maybe look at reviews by blind people to see how they feel about it. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

curatedsymposium's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings