Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

3 reviews

gigi43's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, War, Terminal illness, Grief, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Murder, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Death

friends2lovers's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense fast-paced

1.5

I'm trying to read more of my owned books in 2023 and this is one of many audiobooks I've had in my Audible library for years and never listened to.  When I was scrolling through my audible app, the wintery cover caught my eye, and that's pretty much how I came to finally listen to this.  Mysteries and thrillers are not usually my genre, so I'm not sure why I bought this in the first place.  Maybe it was a daily deal?  Anyway, I did like the narrator, Zach Villa.  He kind of sounded like a young Armie Hammer.  The story was decent, but a little predictable.  I didn't connect with any of the characters enough to want to read more of Esken's novels, which are apparently all set in the same Minnesota town.  Overall, it was okay/fine.  Mostly I'm just glad to finally mark this as read and move on to another book.

Series: On his website, Esken says, "My books are not a series, but rather character arcs that revolve around a small community."   

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

Tags: winter, amateur detective, college-age MC

Setting: Minnesota, in late fall and early winter

Protagonist: Joe Talbert 

Point-of-View: 1st person, past tense

Length: 8h 24m, 333 pages, 90k words (novel)

Format: audiobook from Audible

Narrator: Zach Villa

Read Date: 08 Jan 2023

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, Ableism, War, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

Minor: Abandonment, Sexual content, Cancer, Mental illness, Self harm, Alcoholism, and Addiction

shibaunited's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Great story, engaging writing and narration. There are a few weird sexist comments and some racial comments which are intentional. But overall the story is good. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, War, and Violence

Moderate: Cancer, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Blood, Death, Incest, Kidnapping, Ableism, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Sexual content