Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare

55 reviews

alexmorex3's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Child death

Minor: Drug abuse and Death of parent

mblanke's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Drug use, Death of parent, Child death, Blood, Suicide, Police brutality, Medical content, Drug abuse, Death, and Alcohol

chandie's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gore, Death of parent, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

augustinedreams's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Even though I was able to half predict the ending this book was amazing. It was a fast-paced, thrilling slasher that was truly disgusting at times. Definitely don't read if you can't do gore.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Violence, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Child death, Bullying, Cursing, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

kennethwade's review against another edition

dark tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

Surprisingly brutal and bloody for a young adult novel, Clown in a Cornfield is a successful slasher even if the plot is a bit over-complicated and the social commentary is a bit heavy-handed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, Car accident, Murder, Blood, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Death, and Child death

vkitoria's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-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? No

4.0

fun! i liked the writing, and while the adults vs. teenagers dynamic was a little cliché/heavy-handed, i didn’t mind much.

side note: it’s crazy how books as fucked up and gory as this one are considered “young adult” just because the main characters are teenagers. this was gorier than a stephen graham jones book and those are all “adult” books so what gives?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent

ekmook's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Police brutality, and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Sexism, and Misogyny

mapscitiesandsongs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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? No

3.0

I am bit conflicted. On one hand it was extremely entertaining and I couldn't put the book down. On the other hand there were a lot of things I disliked. First of all, I didn't know it was a slasher book and had completely different expectations. But that's on me. The characters were a bit flat for my taste but I don't think you can expect to have characters with a lot of depth in this kind of book. But still, a lot of plot points didn't really work for me because the characters were so flat and there was zero explanation to their actions. During the whole book I had literally no idea who Cole was as a person and how his life has been up to that point.

Like yeah, his mother died and then his sister too. But what else? And his father was no different. The reasoning behind his need to kill his son is just so freaking stupid. He mentioned that he lost his son even before the death of his daughter, but what exactly happened? Was it because of the Youtube stuff or was is the generational thing?

Can't really say anything about Quinn. She felt like a side character and I didn't care what happened to her to be honest. The romance was just weird.

I wasn't on board with these romantic feelings or whatever between Quinn and Cole and then the author pulled a 180 and introduces a romance between Cole and Rust out of nowhere. I didn't see it coming at all and it just felt so forced.

My biggest problem were the villains and the whole reasoning behind the whole thing. It was just ridiculous and too forced/political. It felt like an agenda being pushed down my throat. I actually had to snort when I found out why the killings happened. It's laughable and flimsy at best. The villains were predictable, dumb and felt cartoonish. The ending made everything even worse though.

Saying 'Even if they killed everyone, they would have been caught regardless' just undid the entire thing. It was all pointless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Blood, Death, Gore, Child death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Suicide

Minor: Cursing, Misogyny, and Vomit

kayebye's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I really enjoyed this book, but found that the main characters were less developed than I would have liked. I did not understand some of their motivations, and the main character Quinn seemed to change her opinions of some of the other characters on a whim. Despite this, the plot was fast moving and really engaging, if a bit predictable. I think Cesare has a very good grasp of writing tension, and I enjoyed most of the twists that the story took. I will definitely be reading the sequel, mostly because I became more invested in the main characters than I expected to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident and Death of parent

Brief mention of overdose by a side character, related to parent death

amadams's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Addiction, Body horror, Murder, and Violence