Reviews tagging 'Torture'

When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain

14 reviews

leblcr1's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Sexual assault

Minor: Suicide

cassidy_rain's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

I wanted to like this but it fell a little flat for me. I did think it was interesting how she incorporated real missing persons from the time into the storyline. I love that it’s based in the bay area because I live here and appreciate all the references. I liked the storyline but the pacing felt really slow for me. I also thought it was quite predictable. Check trigger/content warnings!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual violence, Torture, and Kidnapping

booknerdsinmn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child abuse, Rape, and Child death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual assault

rhodas's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Child death

Minor: Suicide, Rape, Child abuse, and Torture

planreadrepeat's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Anna, a detective specializing in finding missing people, arrives in her hometown to escape a recent, mysterious, tragedy. She reconnects with high school friends and involves herself quickly in a local missing person's case with a history eerily similar to her own. She starts working closely with her friend, Will to investigate all while intertwining her history of childhood, the town, and growing up with her foster parents, Hep and Eden. She also adopts a dog, Cricket. 

It's interesting that the book twists in a real-life missing person case, Polly Klaas, that happened at the same time as the setting of the book in 1993. Sometimes we forget how much more difficult it was to conduct searches and investigations before everything was on the internet and we had cell phones that function as computers. I found the author's note very personal and touching.

There are several content warnings I would give: child abuse, sexual assault, confinement, drug use and overdose. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Child death

Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Torture, Sexual violence, Murder, Kidnapping, and Infidelity

Minor: Chronic illness and Mental illness

ktdakotareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Medical trauma, Medical content, Rape, Confinement, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Murder, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Torture and Pedophilia

fivecatsinacoat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Torture, Drug abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty

msafar's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Sexual assault, and Child death

lynxreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence

bookwormfr_t0's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I loved the trauma theories involved in this - it truly brought it to life and felt raw.  It did take my almost half the book to really get committed to it, but it was worth it.  I never felt attached to our main character, Anna, but I did feel for Cameron and wanted to know how her story-line would wrap up.  And I think the great incorporation of trauma theory is what really drove this.

Despite the short chapters, this is not a novel to read quickly; in fact, the short chapters threw me off a bit because it read choppy at times.  The number of characters is vast and I had to write down who everyone was and their role in the novel - but that might just be me since I took nearly a month to read this.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, and Child death

Moderate: Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, Gun violence, Drug abuse, and Animal cruelty