Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw

33 reviews

thatsssorachael's review

dark mysterious 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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Confinement, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Pregnancy

cyndi1966's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

Minor: Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Confinement

matcha_cat's review

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? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Alcohol, Blood, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Confinement, and Murder

lpdx's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Suicide, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Torture

Minor: Infidelity

adamsbookshelf's review

adventurous mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

I am very conflicted on how to rate this book. I enjoyed the overall plot and the ending was so strong. My biggest problem was the middle of the book (Parts 2&3). They felt so stagnant and nothing interesting was really happening. I found myself zoning out quite a bit.

 However I did enjoy the story. I thought the Pastoral plot point was a cool concept, I just was so intrigued by the first part that I was waiting for the stories to connect so we could get back on track. it truly did feel like two separate stories that were pushed together.

I am aware now that we follow Maggie and Travis as they are brainwashed into becoming Cala and Theo. I am rating this novel based on notes I took while reading. Even though I enjoyed how the two stories came together I still spent over half the novel confused on what's happening.

 

Overall maybe I'm too harsh on this book, but I have been on the waitlist since June 2022 at the library. I feel like the hype around this book lead to me being slightly disappointed. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Murder, Gun violence, and Torture

blissofalife's review

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.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Confinement, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Alcohol, and Body horror

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Torture, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore

amplawrence's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence

cursed_sapphire's review

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book kept me guessing around every turn, keeping me on the edge of my seat. At first a bit confusing, as it starts off with an event and a character that doesn't seem to fit into the rest of the narrative, but as the mysteries slowly unfold, the beginning is only made better. This book was well crafted in a way that I haven't experienced in a while-- where the twists were both surprising yet made complete sense, and tempting me to read the whole book again with my newly-gained perspective. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, and Grief

Minor: Gun violence and Suicidal thoughts

litliz's review

adventurous 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Infidelity

anarchist_al's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.75

A pretty disorienting read—we begin with a narrator whose storyline is simply abandoned for basically the rest of the book. It eventually makes sense, but was kind of a head scratcher for the majority of the book. I really liked the setting of Pastoral, with beautiful descriptions of trees and forest and darkness. I was really intrigued by Travis’s ability to read after images of an object’s history, and was disappointed that it wasn’t explored or explained more. It was very very light magical realism. Also,

the idea of a charismatic cult leader works really well, and that he could lead a community to believe existential falsehoods is totally realistic. However, the whole thing being hypnosis was kind of a stretch. If it had been another bit of magical realism special ability thing, I would have liked it more and it would have mirrored Travis/Theo’s ability.

Overall, cool concept and setting, cool mystery, interesting characters—an entertaining listen. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Torture