Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

92 reviews

yellow_ylugbug's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Death, Medical content, Gore, Drug use, and Body horror

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, and Miscarriage

emco_0's review against another edition

challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Child death, Blood, Miscarriage, Body horror, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Drug use, Death of parent, Grief, and Cancer

amandaquotidianbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

I loved the neurodivergent main character and the magic system. I never connected with Augustine, so was uninvested in a main part of the story. Also not my preferred style of horror, relied a lot on body horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Gore, and Medical content

Moderate: Miscarriage and Abortion

Minor: Sexual content

draconicdetective's review against another edition

dark tense

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Drug use and Death

Minor: Child death

oliviaburley's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? No

4.0

Thoroughly enjoyed the gothic horror elements, could not for the life of me understand why Jane was risking it all for this man she barely knew. I wish it was revealed earlier that her adopted family skipped town so she was essentially stuck with the manor, having no home to go back to would have been a better motivation to all in with the crazy than the insta-love for the good doctor after one night together.

It got a little meta and hard to follow towards the end but I enjoyed it, great Halloween read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Blood, Gore, Body horror, and War

lovesit1892's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

This book started out strong for me with a unique take on the classic gothic horror storyline--mysterious new husband, creepy old house, etc.--but by the ending I was frustrated with the writing. I don't think I've ever read a book with such redundant writing; there was so much text on the page that was repetitive, vague, and really said nothing at all. By the last five chapters I was losing interest, to the point where I considered not even reading past

Chapter Zero

because it did nothing to further the storyline. 

The characters were not really that engaging, and as the storyline and writing devolved that left nothing interesting for me. I would still give it 3 stars because I liked this take on gothic horror, it wasn't just the typical ghost story but it definitely could have been better fleshed out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Body horror, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Drug use, Gaslighting, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Drug use and Death

Minor: Vomit and Panic attacks/disorders

mamaowlbear's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Gaslighting, Death, Child death, Pregnancy, Drug use, Blood, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Medical content

buildingtaste's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

From the first chapter, I always felt like this book was not quite telling me everything I needed to know. Since the setting is an alternate England, I would have expected more direct exposition about the things that make it meaningfully different, and also for these differences to have an impact on the story. As it was, we were soon locked in a country house, fundamentally indistinguishable from an English house (except of course for

the haunted basement

. Though having never stayed in an English country house I guess I can't be sure). Simply setting this novel in a more familiar country, even if in a fictional town or county, would have made this experience much more grounded and improved the contrast of familiar and unfamiliar once things got really weird.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Self harm, Torture, Death, Abandonment, Mental illness, Animal death, Confinement, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Sexual content and Forced institutionalization

As a gothic horror novel, Jane Lawrence comes in fast with explicit gore. Elements of the magic system involve having something affecting a person's organs/moving inside their body, which

the protagonist

describes experiencing in detail.

mar's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

this was kinda underwhelming ngl :'( though it was neat to read a gothic horror with an autistic protagonist

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Gore, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Confinement and Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent, Sexual content, and War

nymfan86's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Gore, and Medical trauma