Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

45 reviews

ford_defect's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Abandonment, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

dreaming_cosmos's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The romance plot is very annoying, imo, but the rest of the story is compelling enough to get me through it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Classism, Physical abuse, Violence, Gun violence, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny

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

mengzhenreads's review

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

4.0

Gritty and gory neo-noir thriller about vampires. The world building in this story was totally insane and I was absolutely here for it. Gruesome in the best way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Drug use and Animal cruelty

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

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

3.5 ⭐ CW: Violence, blood, gore, violent/gruesome deaths, death of a parent, substance use, sex work mention, sexual content, colonization mention, dog fighting mention

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is neon-noir horror that gave me Bladerunner vibes, but instead of androids, vampires. I have found that this author is very hit or miss for me. I did enjoy parts of the novel, but it was just so slow for such a short book. It was also very gruesome, which is not my favorite thing. 

We follow Atl, a birdlike vampire on the run from a rival vampire gang. We get several povs from people either going after Atl or assisting her. Domingo is the sweet, naive one that should be protected at all costs. Atl appears to be a badass, but is really a spoiled vampire who made a grave mistake. I really didn't like Nick, the vampire from the rival gang. He was violent and misogynistic. 

As I said, this was incredibly slow and not much character development. I did like learning about the different types of vampires from different cultures. It was cool seeing Aztec culture represented through Atl. This was just fine. I'm wondering if I should continue to read this author. I really enjoyed Gods of Jade and Shadow, but that's about it so far. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent and Colonisation

Minor: Animal cruelty

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

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