Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

47 reviews

ruthjenkins's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

The author does a good job creating a rich and diverse world of vampires and narcos, without description impeding the story. There are a few bits of exposition dialogue but they mostly make sense in the context of those characters.
The story is a little slow to get started, since the protagonist is in hiding so isn't doing a huge amount, but when the action gets going it becomes quite tense, and very violent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Vomit, Blood, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Torture

raechel's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• 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

3.5

<i>Certain Dark Things</i> takes place in a slightly futuristic Mexico City, in a world where vampires have been known about for decades.  Mexico City is one of the few places they're not allowed, but it's where we find Atl, who is on the run from a Necro vampire clan.  She teams up with a human garbage collector and works on getting away.  This plot is very what-you-see-is-what-you-get and there's no big twists or turns, but sometimes it's nice to have a basic story.

I loved the different types of vampire (we get a encyclopedia in the back of the book), and how the world is different because of it.  There are strong themes of tradition, colonization, trust, and love.  All wrapped up in violence and blood and neon noir.  Side note: idk why this is labeled as YA but it is NOT.

A fun read and I'm honestly a little surprised this isn't a series.  Atl was very cool and had a strong personality.  Domingo was so sweet and naïve.  Bernardino was a cool character, though I feel like more could have been done with him.  If you like modern/sci-fi vampire stories this is a great pick.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Cursing, and Blood

Minor: Animal cruelty

ripxw's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Gore

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty

fictionwitch's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Gore

Minor: Animal cruelty

displacedcactus's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

I'm generally not a fan of vampires, but I am a fan of this author, so I enjoyed this book. As usual, Moreno-Garcia excels at creating a real sense of place. This time, we're given a "neon noir" version of modern-day Mexico City, in a world where humanity discovered vampires exist in the 1960s. Now vampire narcos have cornered the drug trade in Mexico, and there's a lot of conflict between different clans.

In this world there are about 10 distinct and diverse species of vampires -- and they are all living species, not undead who can pass on their "curse" with a bit. I felt like this was a pretty unique interpretation. I enjoyed how a lot of the old myths about vampirism still persisted, however.

The characters are all complex, as is befitting a noir story. I wouldn't necessarily call any of them "likeable", but they are all believable and enjoyable to read, even if I wouldn't want to have a beer with any of them (well, Cualli is likeable. He's a good boy. 14/10).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Blood, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty

queergoth_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.75

I wanted to like this book much more than I did. There were a lot of things I loved about it but I just found it didn't grab my attention the way I wanted it to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Blood, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Misogyny

macknificent's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, and Suicide

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Animal cruelty, and Drug use

mswarning's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Police brutality

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual violence, and Torture

Minor: Addiction, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

malhale's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.75

sad ending

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality

Moderate: Animal cruelty

There are cops / immigration agents asking for papers.

aardwyrm's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

There's some law that books in certain genres have to claim to be reinventing or rulebreaking for some reason. This book does not reinvent vampires. It's a fairly straightforward if grim urban fantasy vampire-themed thriller. Like most of the author's stuff, there's a wonderfully built world and a lot of lush prose inhabited by characters who are rather flatly by the book with no chemistry. Fun to read. Good for Halloween?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Vomit, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexism, Police brutality, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Death of parent, Death, Blood, and Animal cruelty