Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Argylle by Elly Conway

11 reviews

queenbookbuff's review

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

5.0

If you love Steve Berry books then you will love Argyle! It is your classic lone wolf recruited to be a spy.  The book is NOTHING like the movie so don't expect there to be any similarities. As far as I can tell is they used the names and that is pretty much it.
The writing kept me hooked and you can't help but love Argylle. It is an enjoyable read.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Gun violence, Gore, Torture, Murder, and Violence

uranaishi's review

adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Grief, Murder, Torture, Death of parent, War, Car accident, and Confinement

Minor: Trafficking, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Rape, Sexual content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Misogyny, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, and Slavery

taylormoore's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, Murder, Violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: Medical content, Drug abuse, Police brutality, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

ashlurtis's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I am not going to lie, I absolutely only read this book because the crazy Swifties had me convinced Tay wrote it. This is way outside of my normal reading genre and I think for that reason I did not enjoy it as much as someone who regularly reads such books would. Or, more likely, because Taylor Swift didn't actually write it. 

I figured out the who of the whodunnit almost immediately, which made the reveal a little less climactic and a lot of the leadup feel like fluff. The beginning of the book, pre-CIA really captured my imagination with its richly detailed settings, but that quickly faded when the action kind of took over. I'm just not much into reading action/adventure/mystery. 

It wasn't necessarily a bad book, just probably not the best book for this reader. I will definitely be watching the movie though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Violence

sheridanmms's review

adventurous hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

This was a fun read, I look forward to seeing the movie. The final reveal was well timed and the book had a mostly satisfying conclusion. I will be interested to see if there will be a sequel. The characters are almost all likeable and hateable at different times and the story itself was interesting with enough mystery to make it hard to put down. Some scenes felt a little repetitive, but by the end you can tell the purpose of them. The main villain is positively awful with practically no redeeming qualities. 

The ebook is poorly edited, with duplicate words, extra words left in some places, words dropped, and the second word in one chapter is Grance… instead of France. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, and War

onabookban's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Death, War, and Murder

little_literarian's review

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.0

I didn’t feel invested in the characters. The plot was good, like interesting history, and espionage,  but it felt like a screenplay. Flat without character depth. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Gun violence

victoriaorgana's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-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

2.5

It was fine, I wish it was more about Aubrey and his growth. It got lost in the plot and with Francis. The POV changes to her kinda gave it away at the end. Also like the end wasn’t super satisfying mostly trying to set up for future adventures but yeah. Aubrey deserved more complex growth other than “get cut his hair” you feel?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Slavery, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Addiction, Antisemitism, Blood, Death, Murder, and Violence

cayleybp's review

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Minor: Torture

gemloukay's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Argylle is an action filled spy thriller with a mystery author. While the characters could do with more detail, the plot is embedded with historical information, mysterious missing Nazi artefacts and an evil Russian aiming to win an election by finding the famous Amber Room taken from Russia in WWII.

Aubrey Argylle inadvertently saves some US operatives while working as a tour guide in Thailand (and trying to track down information about his parent's deaths) and ends up on the CIA's radar. The team he's assigned to appear to have a traitor in their numbers and their leader is determined to get answers. A romp through Europe follows, taking the group to France, Belgium and Poland, with plenty of action on the way as they're chased by Russian operatives. 

Don't expect the upcoming film to be based on the plot at all but it would make a fun action film in it's own right!  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Genocide, Physical abuse, War, and Death

Minor: Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Grief