Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

14 reviews

conniption_fitz's review

The book has two timelines, one in the 1800s and one in the 1600s. In the 1600s there is repeated use of a racial slur (g***y) as well as multiple examples of how disabled people are viewed as disgusting or evil. The disabled child is hidden away, only can communicate with her mother because her father and others don't learn her sign language, and she is suspected to be demon-touched (which is why she's disabled). There is also a party where the Queen's "freaks" perform as disturbing demons. All of this is historically accurate, but the author does not use this as commentary on the ignorance and ableism of the time, or contemporary biased that still hold strong. 

Instead, two third of the way through the book, it became obvious how the plot was going to play out:

the disabled character is in fact the evil spirit who is murdering people, and her evil nature is directly tied to her disability.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Animal death, Racial slurs, Murder, Child death, Animal cruelty, and Miscarriage

heimax's review

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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, and Death of parent

aloy's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Child death, Alcoholism, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Murder, Toxic friendship, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Blood, Violence, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Medical content, Gore, Drug use, Classism, Grief, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, and Animal death

Moderate: Racism, Sexual violence, Sexism, and Racial slurs

Minor: Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

immovabletype's review

dark emotional 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

3.25

this book is perfectly paced and builds tension and fear very well. i admit i'm an easy mark when it comes to haunted houses but fwiw this definitely gave me some real chills. i flew through the last third of the book. unfortunately it fell short of its potential for me. in particular this is a historical, victorian novel steeped in the expectations on women from outside of their control and within themselves - a lot of themes of what it means for a woman to be mad, and it blurs the line a bit. i was into it, and then some reveals happened that seemed to undercut that commentary. by the time it got to its ambiguous ending (ugh) it didn't even have the power to annoy me as much as it usually does because i was already disappointed.

i can't really say much further without spoilering since my gripes hinge on a big twist, but i am going to include them (under spoilers) in my content warnings below.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Ableism, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Classism, Grief, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Gore, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Alcohol, Animal death, Confinement, Infertility, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Sexual assault, Vomit, Child abuse, and Drug use

expanding on infertility triggers, as well as additional ableism/disfigurement prejudice: there is a disfigured child who is mute due to a birth defect. it's believed she was born without a tongue because her mother used witchcraft to conceive her when she was unable to conceive. big, plot important spoilers:

this conjecture is 'proven' true; her mother allowed something evil to enter her child when she conceived her outside of natural means.

also beware of many inexplicit mentions of CSA.

a_violentfemme'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? No

5.0

I loved this book. A perfectly written gothic horror for the spooky season! The pacing was excellent and got me on edge til the very end. Purcell balances all the aspects of this haunted house story with skill and I can't wait to read the rest of her catalogue. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Suicide, Violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Fire/Fire injury

breezer's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Child abuse, and Child death

jagoda_readsbooks's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

This was delightfully creepy and I definitely loved the vibe! The strong misogynistic themes (due to the time it's set in) were sometimes hard to swallow, but it added a lot of authenticity to the book.

Sadly it was a bit predictable and I figured out the "twist" very early on, but it didn't change my overall excitement about this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny

Moderate: Child death and Miscarriage

Minor: Sexual violence

trishalah_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, and Animal death

cinderrunner's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It was slow moving for me at the start. But once i got about halfway through, it picked up substantially and i zipped through the remainder of the book. Very gothic and atmospheric. The overall mood, especially at the Bridge gives very much Wuthering Heights vibes. Concept is fun and fairly orignal. Very haunting. A little gory without being overly grotesque. Saw the end reveal coming but getting there was fun so i didnt mind. Check trigger warnings for this one cause there are a lot. I will never be okay with a modern book using slurs and stereotypes against Romani people regardless of when the book is set. The plot could have been just as successful without that nonsense so shame to the author for that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide attempt, Racism, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Gore, Xenophobia, Suicide, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Violence, Miscarriage, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Confinement

lydiavsbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

A really solid gothic horror novel with a historical setting and brilliant spooky atmosphere. This follows a pregnant widow as she moves into the family estate of her late husband, where she discovers a set of painted wooden figures, the Silent Companions, and creepy things start happening. 

I had loads of fun with this one. The switching between timelines worked really well for me and added to the intrigue in trying to piece together what was going on. The concept of the Silent Companions was brilliant and I loved the eery descriptions of the companions and the setting combined that greater that gothic atmosphere. It may have been that I finished this at 2am when I was home alone, but it also successfully creeped me out a little at times which was a nice surprise: I've been struggling to find horrors that actually scare me recently. 

There were times it i was worried it was taking a turn towards an unreliable 'mentally ill' narrator plot twist , which are more often than not handled pretty insensitively, but I was relieved with the direction it did take and the way it handled the themes around that.

I do wish we got more of the main character's personality coming through. It took until very late in the book to feel I had some sort of understanding of the main character, and even when we did get a closer look it was more reveals about her trauma rather than who she was as a character. 

I did also see a review that critiqued potential ableism in the way disfigurement is paired with evil. I'm not really sure where I sit with this: it is set in the 1600-1800s and at points it does acknowledge those attitudes to be an unfortunate product of the time, but it still does draw that link within the plot. I do just think its something to be aware of.

Overall it was a really great time, good amount of spookidge as well as some more emotional moments, definitely recommend.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, and Miscarriage

Minor: Racial slurs and Drug use