Reviews with content warning for Self harm - Dom sióstr marnotrawnych

Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Dom sióstr marnotrawnych by Krystal Sutherland

68 reviews

vigil's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

what a simmering disappointment. to get the positives out of the way, the atmosphere of the book is crafted masterfully. the descriptions are lush and the writing style is clear and concise while still being beautiful to read. the character work was mostly okay (except in iris, and a bit in vivi who i'll get to later) and i think grey hollow is the shining example of that. she is easily the smartest, cruelest, and most interesting character in the book, and balances it out by being incredibly compassionate, and protective of her loved ones, her sisters. for the first 200+ pages this book had me.

once

they entered the halfway place

my interest began to wane. tyler, who is so unremarkable i forgot to include him in the list of bad character work, is trapped in an evil horrid body horror filled place with iris, who has no discernible personality. i did not care about them individually and i definitely didn't care about them together. everything about this portion of the book is so repetitive that any of its earlier unnerving atmosphere immediately dissipates from how often your told how unnerving it is.

iris hollow is a shell of a character and waste of a protagonist. she has no character traits aside from being the victim in everything somehow, having her only friend be her mother, and she's not like other girls (namely her sisters, and the popular girls). she has a dissonant picture of morality, especially her own that does not line up with her actions. she chooses (along with vivi, who is barely a character as well) to condemn her elder sister grey for her actions that she a). went along with, b) actively chose to forget about in order to ignore her own culpability, c) continuously benefits from, even as the book ends. i bring this up because for a large portion of the book it had allowed space for ambiguity, power, and for girls to be unlikable, inaccessible, and the like without condemning them. which why i thought the black and white thinking on display was a waste for a book like this. especially when the main character is either culpable, or actively benefiting from the things grey has done. tossing aside your most interesting character like this was not a narrative choice that i enjoyed nor one that enriched the book imo. where's her introspection about that, or

how her not acting and allowing a TEN YEAR OLD to defend her instead of getting off her ass led to her death.

it makes the oddest choices on when to gloss over something and when to nail it down, usually in the most nonsensical ways.

it has representation, if you could even call it that. iris is bisexual, and vivi is a lesbian. there is no romantic plot for really any of the sisters, yet

iris manages to makeout with her missing-possibly dead sister's boyfriend

while vivi gets??? nothing??? the only hint we get at iris liking girls aside from a hamfisted mention of it in the narrative is a

mention of a spin the bottle game played in the past, which leads to a kiss which it almost immediately portrayed in negative light, with a girl who later becomes one of her tormentors.

all in all, this book fell off hard for me towards the end. the plot twist was ultimately unsatisfying in its execution and easily predictable. i'm more disappointed by this one than other ones, because it had excellent potential, especially for the first 200 pages. everything after that after that is just a waste. i think my largest complaint is that sutherland set up a plot that is not fully suited to the genre that it’s in (YA) and would have been a better richer the narrative as an adult or even new adult book.

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ocean's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I love the writing of this book and the story really pulled me in. I couldn’t put it down! Loved the mysterious, gory, floral, decaying vibes. Didn’t love the way the author writes mental health issues. I looked at some of her other work and I didn't like how disability was represented either. It’s safe to say this author prefers to use disability and mental health issues as thematic elements to add to the story, rather than actual representation.

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arlaines's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.75

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katiedykema's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

I really wanted to love this book… but it was definitely not for me. I was hoping for something halfway between Small Favors and the Raven Cycle but that’s not really what this delivered. It was not all that creepy or dark like I had expected; it had its moments but overall it was just… average. I wish it hadn’t taken place in modern day because it definitely ruined the atmosphere a lot of the time. It also led to weird stuff like Vivi being a walking stereotype, Grey a fashion designer for literally no reason to the plot, and wayyy less horror. The plot was overall pretty confusing because it felt like the beginning really dragged, and then all of the sudden they were doing a bunch of random things that didn’t connect very well. It was at times difficult to pinpoint what the characters’ end goal was and the villain was poorly developed in my opinion. Honestly all of the characters were pretty unlikeable or uninteresting. The ending was pretty crazy but less impactful because of how much I really didn’t care about the characters.
Overall decent I guess but not as atmospheric and creepy as the description advertised, and it was often kind of boring.

Okay… why the hell did Gabe kill Tyler? I understand him wanting to kill the changelings but damn Tyler did nothing wrong; I thought Gabe was supposed to be this sweet character… makes no sense. Also the very ending was just weird. They find out this crazy thing about themselves and, for one thing Cate just accepts it and still wants Iris around, and they also just don’t do anything about Grey even though she is the real villain? I don’t know but I would definitely not let her just go on with her celebrity life after that.

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mcdal's review against another edition

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5.0

Sometimes carrion flowers and vomit and crimes against nature is actually something that can be so personal

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emily_mh's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

4.5. I was REALLY pleasantly surprised by this one. It was super spooky and mysterious, and Sutherland's prose was beautiful and descriptive. I loved the focus on the sisters and their relationship. Also, the ending was incredibly satisfying. I will say there was a little too much retrospective monologuing on Iris' part. Also,

the kiss between Tyler and Iris was so unnecessary! It completely undermined Iris' character, who up until this point was completely dedicated to Grey. If she truly was dedicated, she wouldn't have kissed her boyfriend

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