Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock

43 reviews

planetsaturns's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Suicide, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Blood, and Sexual assault

marisabenn's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I highly suggest this book to anyone who likes Cormac McCarthy. More quotation marks, less adjectives. I flew through this book and was constantly wondering what was coming next. It follows several people, but blends them so well and ties their stories together with a grisly red bow. They are (mostly all) flawed, awful, horrible people and yet I found myself wanting to know what despicable thing they would do next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Incest and Homophobia

damolaarin's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Incest, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

sharbison's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Medical trauma

Minor: Cancer, Excrement, Domestic abuse, Vomit, and Pregnancy

carlyisnotliterate's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Racial slurs, and Vomit

miishae's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

   | It's a really dark book with a lot of triggering topics, but it's such a good read with tons of morally grey characters who face many challenges. It's really interesting to see how this small world eventually comes together and everyone make decisions that aren't always for the best. 

Massive trigger warning for dark topics, violence, etc. Definitely would not recommend unless you like this kind of stuff. Personally, I couldn't put it down. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, and Suicide

escapinginpaper's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion, Excrement, Homophobia, Kidnapping, and Sexual content

Minor: Incest and War

qi_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

wowowow. this was fucking good. 

i appreciate how well plotted the story line seemed to be. everything made sense together and donald ray pollock didn't feel the need to throw out a random, nonsensical twist in the name of shock value. although the means that i had a pretty strong hunch about where the story would be going it still was able to shock me due to the writing and how he depicts such scenes. 

the writing was gritty and blunt which i love. some of these scenes are written in such a matter-of-fact way which just leaves you feeling like you like D: 

the characters were well written and felt very dynamic. even "bad" characters *cough cough arvin* i still felt like rooting for and you are just left with mixed emotions. 

part five was definitely the part where i had the biggest emotional reactions to the text, i am reluctant to say my favourite part because yikes. if you are looking for some small town, gritty horror i would highly recommend but dO LOOK UP TRIGGER WARNINGS! 

as you can tell by this spotty review i don't know how to formulate my thoughts properly. so, great way to nurse the morning after my second dose of the vaccine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting

Minor: Ableism, Homophobia, and Racial slurs

atalea's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, Cursing, and Body horror

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Bullying

zacharie's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book is hyper-violent with characters so messed up it feels wrong to say that I liked reading it. It very much triggered that part of your brain that can’t look away from a tragedy, because no matter how uncomfortable the book made me, I kept coming back to it and wanting to know what fucked up thing would happen next. 

As a person who is usually drawn to loveable and relatable characters, it was interesting to find myself invested in a cast of characters I absolutely despise. Normally a story with unlikeable characters like this would make me want to stop reading and pick up something else, but for this book it was the complete opposite. This amplified the experience in a way, because after having followed this group of repulsive characters, the ending felt rewarding in a way I haven’t really experienced before in a mix of relief and satisfaction. 

I don’t think I’ll ever be able recommend this book to anyone with the heaping amount of content warnings, but I’m glad I got myself through this unsettling experience. I’ll probably be coming back to it during future spooky seasons too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Minor: Homophobia