Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

42 reviews

sunshinestark's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, and Grief

books4em's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

I look forward to reading the next Detective Elin Warner novel by Sarah Pearse! The Sanatorium was a very good psychological thriller. I enjoyed the quick pacing and appreciated the short chapters (388 pages and 92 chapters) - made it easy to get through. I also enjoyed that we had the classic psychological thriller multi-plot style and liked how we had character and relationship development along one storyline and then we had another storyline following these exceedingly gruesome murders. Pearse also did a nice job of incorporating the setting into the story as if it was a character itself - it definitely added to the eeriness of the murders and story overall. I do have some questions at the end though with some of the connections. And the ending lends the reader to believe Elin isn't going back to the police force, but then Pearse's next book's blurb is about Detective Elin Warner being on a case so I'm not sure what happens there. Also the epilogue...need answers! Overall very good!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Violence, Death, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Sexism, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

Minor: Rape and Toxic relationship

lillyrose97's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Kidnapping, Child death, Death, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Child abuse

Moderate: Rape, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

hannahloveslit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Murder, Kidnapping, Gore, Grief, Forced institutionalization, and Medical trauma

Minor: Blood, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Stalking, Abortion, and Sexual assault

moeisme1972's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Murder, and Child death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Infertility, Abortion, Torture, and Rape

thexwalrus's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.75

wow. i could not put this book down, even when i knew it would be smarter to do so. i just had to keep reading because i needed to know what was going on. 

pearse is brilliant at crafting atmosphere and describing imagery in a way that makes it all feel extremely real. i could hear the wet-sounding wheezing behind the mask of the murderer each time it was mentioned and i could feel that tense energy that comes with watching a blizzard unfold outside your window. she chose an awesome location and a fantastic, thrilling plot and combined them perfectly. 

the sanatorium setting was eerie in its own unique way, despite the renovations it had gone through. abandoned sanatoriums and asylums are my #1 most feared horror location, so that may be biased, but pearse did some great research into what made sanatoriums work in treating TB and used that to her advantage! it was great to see things like big windows and wide open spaces be used effectively in horror like this. 

i ended up loving the main crew of characters so much more than i expected to, and the plot kept me guessing until the final reveal happened. this was such a fun winter read and i cannot wait to read pearse’s next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Rape and Torture

addyisnothere's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, and Stalking

Moderate: Rape and Grief

Minor: Death of parent

bethnash's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Mental illness, Grief, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Abortion, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

pinkelfish's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.5

i was really, really hoping i would like this. however, it felt like the whole thing just dragged on.

the characters weren’t likable or even really fleshed out. i didn’t feel like i had any reason to connect to them. elin has this trauma from a case that is barely discussed (she almost drowned i think? like the killer in that case tried to drown her or something when she went after them alone). not to mention everything with her brother sam. nothing felt fleshed out, it all seemed to be surface level.

spoilers ahead!!!

the ending was shocking, to say the least, but in a terrible way. i had a suspicion that it was cecile but her motive…it just didn’t feel right. like it made me truly feel very uncomfortable because her motive just felt like it came out of nowhere? it just left a terrible taste in my mouth and i almost didn’t even care to finish the book, even though i only had 20 pages left. 

and the epilogue? you give the most clichéd reason for sam’s death, and what actually happened, just to have the brother be weird and freaky? and somehow he pushed her into the pool, even though the video footage showed it was his fiancee? lol, okay. 

i don’t think i’d recommend this to anybody. when the sequel comes out i’ll probably just read a plot summary because i don’t care to waste my time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Medical trauma, Murder, and Gore

panthalassa's review

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, Medical trauma, Grief, and Gore

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Abortion and Infertility