Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland

35 reviews

black_cat_iiix's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexism, Sexual violence, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Misogyny, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

meg53's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abandonment

ellie_debney's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Physical abuse, Vomit, and Medical content

apoppyinthewind's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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? No

5.0

I love a witchy book that takes a different approach to magic and The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland is one of the darker, more unique versions of magic I've read. In this world, magic is tied to making a pact with a demon, stamped on the witch's skin, which comes with a cost, and there is no room for mistakes. 

The three main POV characters are Jude, Emer, and Zara. The first, Jude, is a novice witch who's made quite a life-changing mistake with her pact and is seeking help to fix it. Zara, grieving her murdered sister, is determined to find answers and a way to bring her sister back. Jude and Zara are brought together while researching the murders of other witches, all of whom were former clients of Emer, the curse writer.

It's a dark, bloody tale, with a significant amount of body horror about three characters trying to track down a murderer targeting witches. I would recommend checking it out if you enjoy witchy books and horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

gabburrit0's review against another edition

dark

3.75

this ended v sweetly. i think that the metaphor of having a villain who quite literally uses the successes of women to feel more powerful himself is a bit on the nose but i think it worked really well for this story. 

i really liked all of the girls! i think that their specific dynamic (the face, the brain, and the brawn) can definitely fall into the trap of cliche but it also really worked for this specific story and the narrative that they were trying to convey of like "girl power but make it supernatural" i also really appreciated that sutherland included the gore of doing these rituals into the story. lots of ppl are into witchcraft and their own interpretations of it but it has a lot to do with imbuing crystals with intentions or lighting sage to cleanse but this was like "let's get back to our roots and show the blood and how you have to give up a lot of yourself in order to achieve your specific wants in witchcraft" which i thoroughly enjoyed

the only thing keeping this book from a 4 star (5 star was a bit too high for me since i take re-readability into account) is that i just enjoyed sutherland's other book (house of hollow) so much more. it's unfair for me to pit 2 books against each other but in my defense they're both written by the same author and have similar vibes of supernatural occurrences happening to young women. where this book fell flat when it came to atmosphere, house of hollow absolutely knocked it out of the park. i wish that there had been more moodiness and overall gothic tones throughout this story because we're quite literally talking about hunting witch-hunters because they're killing women rapidly and the tone of the book just felt very vampire academy (movie version) and i just know that sutherland knows how to write a fucking good atmospheric book. tldr, house of hollow actually made me feel anxious and a little scared to turn off my light at night and i listened to this book on audiobook to help me go to sleep (affectionately)

that all being said, this book has made me a fan of sutherland's work. i'm definitely going to be picking up whatever she releases next and i'll be there for the vibes of a spooky story 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Blood, Grief, and Murder

codyemma's review against another edition

dark sad tense

• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Sexism, Vomit, and Grief

sage_alexandra's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Would probably have rated higher if not for the first few chapters. Maybe 4 or 5 chapters in was when the story finally picked up, but I'm glad I pushed through! The beginning was too much untethered exposition and vague character explanations, but it all came together quite quickly, and then I finished the rest of the (audio)book in under 24 hours.

Pretty extraordinary book, and the narrator, Kit Griffiths, is phenomenal!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

a lot of graphic knife/blade injuries,

flaying of skin

, descriptions of pain revolving around the cutting. none of it in a suicide-selfharm sort of way, just girlies doing casual blood sacrifices to demons!

yayathegreat38's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Murder

taylah13's review

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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Sutherland’s writing is exceptional, it’s gruesome and visceral - the type of writing the crawls inside of your chest and sits in your throat. Such an original take on a modern witch story, it was dark and gothic and featured some loveable unhinged lesbians. But most importantly it’s a story of rage and agency. My only issue is that this could easily categorised as adult horror - this book deals with some heavy themes and I recommend for ages 16+ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Death and Hate crime

Minor: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Grief

wren_08's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail