Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

108 reviews

the_one_krissy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

What the heck did I just read?! This book was nothing like I expected, and it was one of the craziest experiences of my reading year so far. I honestly couldn't put it down, and the plot twists were insane and absurd and, somehow, worked really well all the same. I actually don't want to reveal anything about the plot, because I think this is one of those books you should go into without knowing what's in store for you to get the full experience.

It's a whole bunch of crazy, though. Crazy but the kind of crazy that keeps your eyes glued to the page. Be warned though, this book is entertaining but also stuffed to the brim with sick and twisted cruel things, and those who are particularly sensitive to cruelty against children might want to skip this one altogether. It's very brutal in places.

The characters of this book I really enjoyed, even if some of them - okay, most of them - are totally bonkers. Erwin was my favourite, but the whole cast was excellent. Overall, this book really gripped me and was very close to a five-star read... I'm not even sure what it is that I felt was missing. Some elusive little spark, maybe, that tips the scale from an excellent read to a sublime one. Still, this was an absolutely wonderful book I enjoyed with mixed feelings of slack-jawed admiration and abject horror.

You underestimate linguists and librarians at your own peril. Just saying.

And I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open when this author publishes something new.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Child death

Moderate: Gore, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

bearish's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense

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

5.0

Dangerous Librarians, Selfish Gods, Academy for Dark Powered Children Run by Suspicious/Morally Grey Father Figure, Inadvertent Cosmic Horror, Narrator with a Secret, We Love it When a Plan Comes Together, Playing the Long Game, Friends to Enemies, The Talking Lion is Not a Jesus Stand-In, See This is Why We Need Term Limits, A Malice that Has No Bottom

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and War

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

I really dislike using r*p* as character development and this book uses that a little bit. So hated that. Also kind of hated throwing sex/peens in the story too. Like no I didn't need to know that one character could not get erect no matter how much the other character involved tried in any level of detail, but here we are.

Also wasn't a fan of making a large portion of carolyn's motivation being her romantic crush

. 
But overall the book was okay. Super slow going, but the idea was good. I understand needing quite a bit of the back stories leading up to the present time now that I've finished it, but while reading, it made the story drag on a little. It also kind of feels like a couple ideas were thrown together that didn't get fully fleshed out, but the main thing of the book is

creating/raising/training a god or a god-like being. It also really embodies the meme "I want to punch god in the face"

. People are saying it's weird but I didn't find it so much as it was just kind of graphic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexism

upperjackpain's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault and Vomit

Minor: Incest and Police brutality

mommarex1221's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

Do not be discouraged by the 3 ⭐️ rating, this novel is crafted with care and the premise is unique, at least it's unlike anything I've ever read before. I would still recommend it. I did enjoy about half of it, not to say I disliked the remaining half, I just struggled. I was a bit sad about some of the choices made in reference to a certain character, but that's on me and not the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, and Car accident

catiemcgee's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Sexual violence

Minor: Death of parent

scenic92's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

ingrachel's review against another edition

dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Sexual violence, Violence, and Death of parent

easypeasy17's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I liked the concept that everything in this book wasn’t necessarily supposed to make sense at first. However, I was disappointed that the way things were revealed happened more in dialogue between characters. It would have been more interesting if these mysteries were explained to the reader through showing us what happened rather than telling us what happened.

I was also a little frustrated that the ending was basically that Father had planned for all of that to happen rather than just having it be Carolyn’s own triumph. I also would have like to have seen how she adjusted the world to her own era rather than just building off of how Father had done it.

Lastly, I thought the book went on a little longer than necessary.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent

theseaiscalm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment