Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

65 reviews

szyca's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kenlaan's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

Gripping, timely, and grim as hell. Reads a bit like what Se7en might've been like if it came out today and was influenced by the many flashpoints of the last 10 (not to mention the last 250) years of American culture and politics, and set in rural Virginia.

The first Black sheriff - Titus Crown - elected in the fictional county of Charon in rural Virginia must stop a serial killer before the county erupts from the tensions of fear and the foundational racism that's a facet of its people's daily lives.

In spite of my five-star rating, this is a book that I would hesitate to recommend to pretty much anyone I know, in contrast to Cosby's previous novel, Razorblade Tears, which isn't a light novel but not nearly as dark as this. It's undoubtedly one of the darkest books I've ever read: there is a school shooting in the second chapter (no children are harmed, but...) and it just gets worse from there. This is not something I would've ever been drawn to if I hadn't read his previous stuff.

Cosby can <i>write</i>. With most authors I can point to their particular strengths: he's good at characterization, her prose is really evocative, etc. I'd struggle to mention something that Cosby doesn't excel at. The characters are nuanced, multidimensional people, the plot is tightly-wound and intricately charted, and I hear, smell, and feel the environs of Charon County.

And the insight with which Cosby writes the experiences of a Black man living amongst the prejudices and racism of rural America is what takes this novel beyond a genre thriller and into a must-read commentary of the world we live in.

If you know what you're getting into and aren't troubled by darker crime fiction, definitely read this, though I'd probably recommend Razorblade Tears as an intro to S.A. Cosby. And if you aren't sure, maybe stay away - I'm not someone that includes content warnings in reviews but I will be listing them as spoilers at the bottom.

I will read anything that Cosby writes and hope his next novel comes soon.

Opening:

Charon County was founded in bloodshed and darkness.
Literally and figuratively.
Even the name is enveloped in shadows and morbidity. Legend has it the name of the county was supposed to be Charlotte or Charles County, but the town elders waited to late and those names were already taken by the time they decided to incorporate their fledgling encampment. As the story goes, they just moved their finger down the list of names until they settled on Charon. Those men, weathered as whitleather with hands like splitting mauls, bestowed the name on their new town with no regard to its macabre nature. Or perhaps they just liked the name because a river flowed through the county and emptied into the Chesapeake like the River Styx. 
Who knows? Who could know the thoughts of those long-dead men?
What is known is that in 1805 in the dead of night a group of white land-owners, chafing at the limits of their own manifest destiny, set fire to the last remaining indigenous village on the tear-drop shaped peninsula that would become Charon County.
Those who escaped the flames were brought down by muskets with no regard to age, gender, or infirmity. That was the first of many tragedies in the history of Charon. The cannibalism of the winter of 1853. The malaria outbreak of 1901. The United Daughters of the Confederacy picnic poisoning of 1935. The Danforth family murder-suicide of 1957. The tent revival baptismal drownings of 1968, and on and on. The soil of Charon County, like most towns and counties in the South, was sown with generations of tears. They were places where violence and mayhem was celebrated as the pillars of a pioneering spirit every Founders' Day in the county square.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Murder

acozycactus's review against another edition

dark 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: Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

annabulkowski's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

josie2k's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Abandonment

tkhenry99's review against another edition

4.0

i really just did not care about the MC’s personal life at all but the crime he was investigating was really interesting and the social commentary is super important 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism

morybaby's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Objectively, it’s a good book. The thing is I read razorblade tears before this and that is my standard. This did not do ✨it✨ for me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Pedophilia, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and Murder

pomoevareads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

This book won’t be for everyone but if you can stomach some sick gore wrapped in some captivating southern noir then Cosby’s latest crime fiction book All the Sinners Bleed might be up your alley. I had to breathe through a few parts as it was a bit much. 

This book is as much about a sheriff working to be a respectable and honorable leader as it is about the town over which he tries to maintain order. A group of confederate supporters want to hold a march in town to honour a statue that seeks to bring the town back to its (racist) roots. Opposing this group is another group led by a modern church leader who wants to see the statue removed and for the town to move forward in a more harmonious community. In the midst of tension between the two groups, a shooting occurs. As a result of the shooting, Titus learns about more deaths that have been carried out in his quiet town. Titus must track down a serial killer among a group of folks who don’t all stand out. 

Cosby excels at getting the reader to root for a character and presents moral issues in a meaningful way. I found his character of a Titus Crown, the first black sheriff in this small Virginian town, to be well built and interesting. Titus has his own demons which we learn about slowly throughout the novel. Many side characters are introduced and keeping notes helped me keep them straight. 

The pacing of the novel starts out a bit slow for a Cosby novel leaving me unsure what to expect but rest assured the action and suspense arrives. I stayed glued to a couple of clues but never guessed who the killer was. Looking back, I can see some more clues that were dropped that I glossed over. 

Overall, I found All the Sinners Bleed hard to put down once I got into it. There was a lot of religious imagery and quotes that didn’t mean as much to me as it will to others but helped develop the story. This book is not for the faint of heart and contains many topics that may be triggering to those who have experienced child abuse in particular. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Torture, and Religious bigotry

tsundokukarla's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

violentlyagitated's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racism, and Religious bigotry