Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

45 reviews

slimshaedy92's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

I love me some built out vampire lore inspired by real world history and folklore! This book gives neon-nighttime (cyberpunk 2077?) vibes and variations on the vampire (as well as silly tidbits we love to see included) that I haven’t seen before but fit wonderfully in their respective cultures.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

bookswithpao's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Death, War, Misogyny, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gun violence, Death of parent, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Sexism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, Child death, and Excrement

bessadams's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Death of parent, Animal cruelty, and Gun violence

megsbookishadventures's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, Colonisation, Body horror, Drug abuse, and Grief

Minor: Cursing, Animal cruelty, Grief, Police brutality, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Animal death

sonygaystation's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Murder, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Stalking and Gun violence

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Torture, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

raavi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, and Torture

Moderate: Xenophobia

Minor: Grief and Adult/minor relationship

trollmila's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Police brutality, Medical content, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Murder, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Slavery, Trafficking, Animal cruelty, Classism, and Colonisation

sarahbethhh's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.25

Mexican Gothic made me want to read anything and everything Moreno-Garcia wrote. I was so excited to pick up this one, especially since I was a Twilight girlie in middle school. This one just absolutely fell flat for me. The interactions and character developments felt forced; the various storylines converged in a disappointing and frantic way; the plot felt weirdly cliche and like a stretch at the same time. Domingo, though, is precious and needs to be protected at all costs. He alone saved the story for me. 

I'll also give credit for the lovely use of folklore that Moreno-Garcia wove in. It was refreshing and interesting, even if the story itself wasn't one that particularly resonated with me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Body horror

daniellekat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.25

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of my favourite author's but this one fell a bit short for me. I typically love the vividness of her writing and her characters but everyone felt flat and one dimensional here.  There were too many characters for me to feel connected to any of them, but I do think the changing POVs was well utilized for this narrative. The book was well paced and had me engaged throughout. I loved all the vampire lore but it was weirdly woven into the storytelling (It often felt like Domingo's only purpose was to ask questions for the reader). Overall, SMG is still one of my favourites and I love the diversity of her writing, you never know what you'll get.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gun violence, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Toxic friendship

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Bullying

ramreadsagain's review against another edition

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? Yes

3.5

Certain Dark Things is an original and diverse take on vampires where various 'subspecies' exist around the globe, integrated to a greater or lesser extent into human society. Mexico City is a 'vampire-free zone' but our main character Domingo is about to discover just how incorrect that is.

What I liked:

• The cover!! Considering trying to find it as a print.
• The vibes, they do a great job of matching the cover. I love vampires and really liked the lore that is introduced in this book. Plus, the gritty, 'noir' atmosphere that makes Mexico City feel both futuristic and modern. 
• The world-building; a lot of thought has been put into vampire traits and history, as well as the state of Mexico City. It did feel a bit surface-level at times, but it isn't a big book and I am perfectly happy with what is there. 
• The Aztec inspirations, mythology and history were great to read.
• The plot, to an extent: it was fun and readable! 
• The commentary of colonialism under a vampire lense.
• The dog!!

What I didn't like:

• The tone: this is an adult book, but to me reads quite YA with a lot of gore. The dialogue felt immature most of the time, the sex was fade to black, and overall nothing had the kind of nuance I would expect from a book directed at adult audiences.  However, this is one of Moreno-Garcia's first books! I'm very excited to read more from her. 
• Furthermore, this is classed under the 'horror' genre and I think I disagree with that. Vampires don't always equal horror, and this is gorey but I don't really get any other horror traits from it. 
• I feel like Domingo should have been aged up at least a year to 18. He's 17 and I believe Atl is 22 or 23, which paired with the power imbalance of her being a vampire that could kill him in a heartbeat, made the romance just a bit icky. 
• The development of the above romance. It felt like Atl switched from 'absolutely not' to 'i love him' within a couple of paragraphs and I would have liked either more buildup or a smoother transition. 
• I didn't really connect with any of the characters. We had five POVs, and three of those were always very brief which didn't allow for any connection to them while also taking time away from Domingo and Atl. Ana was great until she just wasn't, for plot reasons, and I think Rodrigo's internal POV/motivations were unnecessary. 

I also just really don't know how I feel about the ending!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Violence, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, and Vomit

Minor: Animal death and Colonisation