Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

141 reviews

khezula's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I couldn't put this down when I first read it, but it should be noted this book is dark, and goes to some dark places (see content warnings) The story does jump around time wise, which I know can be confusing. The stereotypical climax for a book does come a little early compared to the end of the book as there are still character developments and story wrap up that occurs after. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Torture, Body horror, and Rape

abathur's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

1.5

Pros: 
- the first third of the book kept me wanting to read it
-  the lions

Cons:
- the author is a middle-aged guy who is a leg man, and I had to walk away from this book knowing that
- Father (aka Ancient Pedo) rapes, tortures, and murders the kids because they "need" it. the book tells you so, and he is rewarded for it
- Father/Ancient Pedo only ever pits the kids against each other and isolates them from the outside world. what does this with the point above tell you?
- the black character is the main rapist. the asian girl character smells like shit. the plot conveniently has reasons for this, but take this as you will given that the author paints a textbook child abuser as a good guy
- Carolyn is a flat Mary Sue. there is no tension in this book as a result
- random inconsistencies (eg. the kids under Ancient Pedo's care can't dress themselves, but they dress dead people normally without issue)
- nebulous concepts that are never really established (eg. death is banishing someone to the shadow realm, but it's irrelevant because people get resurrected all the time -- except that one time with the lion because reasons). creativity is cool until it just becomes random bullshit
- random bullshit (eg. when Carolyn calls the president. not sure if that was supposed to be funny or something)
-  some of the colour book powers or whatever are redundant and some of them are completely useless
- bad plot armour and nonsensical decisions (eg. why did David let Carolyn touch his dong? he's supposed to be the best fighter in the world, and she's his biggest enemy)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Gore, Toxic relationship, Torture, Emotional abuse, Racism, and Rape

ldockham's review against another edition

Could not stomach all the torture of the children by Father as well as too much gore.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, and Animal death

aeglaeca's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I've never read a book quite like this before. Highly recommended if you aren't put off by dark stories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Torture, Rape, Suicide, and Animal cruelty

storyorc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book makes exorbitant promises and delivers things adjacent to those promises in a surprising and thrilling way. Hawkins pushes the limits of what a reader can stomach in both the fantastical and the moral sense yet the book has its own near-nihilistic sense of humour. His characters are weird and often harsh but never quite unsympathetic.

My only complaints are the huge loss in momentum between the last two acts and that the first chapter had me hungry for much more interaction between Carolyn's terminally messed up 'family'. 

If you like stories like The Old Guard, the ending of IT, Harrow the Ninth, Wild Seed, and/or Sandman, or have any interest in exploring how abysmally human morals scale when people live too long and get too strong (and can handle some existential dread), pick this up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Suicide

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Police brutality

shelbymarie314's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Torture, Animal cruelty, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Cannibalism, Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Incest

mochikochicken's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Murder, Violence, Gun violence, War, Animal death, Body horror, Death of parent, Suicide, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Medical content, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

tiredjulia'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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, and Torture

rodiemom's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Neil Gaimen meets Stephen King. This book was weird and violent. The characters were all awful, because their “father” made them that way. Lots of terrible things happen over and over, but somehow it became a redemption story. Worth reading, but not for the faint of heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Gore, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Murder, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Torture, and Violence

rhimineecat's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

Well this might have been the weirdest and most unhinged book I ever read. In the most fucked up way you could ever possibly imagine. Suppose this one will haunt me for a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Suicide, Blood, Animal death, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Child death