Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Unhinged by Onley James

50 reviews

readingtotravel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

“I will disembowel anybody who so much as messes up your hair.” 
Noah pretended to swoon. “Who says romance is dead?” 
Adam narrowed his eyes at Noah. “I feel like you’re making fun of me, but I can’t tell.”
🤎🤎🤎
I didn't think I would enjoy this book, but the author not only seemed to accurately capture the psychological aspects of the characters but also somehow made me fall in live with a semi-problematic cast of characters. And I absolutely ADORE the main characters and their relationship.

This book is not for you if you are not a fan or insta love, found families, and/or possessive boyfriends.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Violence

trulydevious's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Murder, and Rape

Moderate: Addiction, Vomit, and Violence

Minor: Torture, Suicide, and Blood

smasson13's review

dark 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? Yes

4.0

While not usually my cup of tea, the Instagram recommendations were wild for this so I gave it a shot.

Definitely read the trigger warnings and go slow if you aren't sure! 

The story feels very short, even for just shy of 300 pages. The characters aren't super developed and I found myself way more interested in the other brothers than Adam. I will definitely be reading their books too. 

Over all, the plot is straightforward, the sex is pretty great, and the writing is solid. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Incest, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Child death, Confinement, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Violence, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Blood, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Stalking, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit

zabeishumanish's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

Absolutely ridiculous and shockingly delightful.
Check all the trigger warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, and Child abuse

ridleyreadsthings's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense fast-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

4.5

So part of me feels loke this was a darker, sexier, fanfiction of Twilight mixed in with Dexter in a way (minus the vampires) but I loved it. It was dark and chaotic and smutty, full of loveable psychopaths. Check trigger warnings before you pick it up because the subject matter is pretty dark and bleak. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Pedophilia, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Drug abuse

astrozombies's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

1.0

i read this book and wasn’t left with too many positive thoughts so here are the details in this book that range from mildly concerning to more noticeably egregious:

• so many weird plotholes such as

noah having a flip phone in chapter 2 and then suddenly having a normal cell phone with which he can use instagram later on in the book.

if this was intentional, it was not explained at all.
• absolutely hit or miss mental health representation with HUGE misses (made even more devastating by the fact that james herself says that she based the book’s characters loosely off of her experiences from working in an actual psychiatric facility).
• ableist language (i.e. ps****(path), sociopath, crazy, insane, etc.).
• some extremely odd editing issues such as a moment in chapter 18 where the text (outside of dialogue) swaps from third person pov to first person pov but just for a single sentence. more innocuous things like this occur often throughout the book.
• misuse of the term “meltdown” which is an autism-specific occurrence and should not be used lightly in reference to an allistic character who does not and never will experience an actual meltdown.
• a comment made toward a character implied to be on the asexual spectrum that likens them to an android. this kind of language is constantly used to diminish and harm actual asexual people so the fact that an author who writes almost exclusively queer characters would use this is especially hurtful.
• this book utilizes sexual consent between the main couple in a way i could only refer to as “interesting”
• so many important plot details just… happened off-page such as

noah going through gun/self defense training AND noah meeting his mother and family. i felt like it was a weird decision to exclude these details, and while i’m not necessarily asking for a chapter every time noah goes to the gun range, at least one scene and explanation would be helpful. as for the mom thing, i feel as though we missed out on a lot of possibly meaningful interactions further delving into noah’s emotions towards knowing his real family and his character as a whole. i found myself hoping for the epilogue to be noah meeting his mom, but was both unsurprised and disappointed when it turned out to just be another in a nigh-endless stream of sex scenes.

this book did manage to entertain me every now and again, but i simply feel like it didn’t pull enough weight. i was also majorly disappointed by the portrayal of type b personality disorders such as aspd (“sociopathy”) which are consistently demonized in our modern world. choosing to make multiple characters with explicit aspd into murderers (even pedophile-killing vigilante ones!!) is certainly a choice that sets us down the wrong path, especially since these are the only characters besides noah (who does not have aspd) that we ever see kill someone.
i will not be reading the rest of this series, and i would not recommend this book to other people. if you’re just looking for smut to read, ao3 is free.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Child death

sabinehunter's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Child abuse, Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Child death, Trafficking, Violence, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, and Stalking

book_lover56's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Violence, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Death, Murder, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Blood, Gore, Torture, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Mass/school shootings, Confinement, Child death, Rape, and Abandonment

Minor: Kidnapping, Drug use, Confinement, and Cursing

sniderbeebooks's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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

3.0

This is the first dark romance I've read where the darkness actually makes me doubt the romance. In other words, I sometimes felt like Noah's trauma and Adam's psychopathy were the only reasons the relationship formed and would continue beyond the 'HEA.' Is that a bad thing? I don't know for sure, but it felt like it as I was reading. 
I can say that I was thoroughly entertained and engaged in the story. I love the banter between the brothers and will likely continue in the series to get more of that. 
My biggest complaint is the maturity level of the characters. Noah and Adam both felt very juvenile to me. I couldn't stop picturing them as teenagers for some reason. Especially Adam. I found it very hard to accept that he was in his mid to late twenties. I'm curious if that will be the case when reading about the brothers that are even older. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Torture, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Suicidal thoughts

buffyloverlori's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Death, Murder, and Violence