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fictionaladventures's review against another edition
2.0
Graphic: Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Child abuse, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child death, Kidnapping, and Torture
jessicas_bookshelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Kidnapping, and Torture
Moderate: Rape and Pedophilia
tajosima's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Gore, Stalking, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Confinement, Sexual violence, Torture, Murder, Medical content, Body horror, Blood, Vomit, Mental illness, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape
overbookedteacher's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Incest, Child abuse, Death, Rape, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Sexual violence
sarah_speaks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Torture, Murder, Body horror, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Stalking, Pedophilia, Gore, Blood, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Sexual content
Minor: Forced institutionalization and Alcoholism
jessy_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
3.5
Yet, I still picked this book up, hoping that it would be different. The Chestnut Man follows several third-person perspectives, including several police officers and Rosa Hartung, a minister who makes a comeback to the political scene a year after her daughter disappeared. I was hoping that the latter perspective would counteract some of the issues I tend to have with detective thrillers.
The reason that I don't pick up detective thrillers anymore is that I find some type of personal investment lacking. The main character, often a police officer, is given a case and simply does their job, but they are not personally attached to the crime that they are trying to solve. Additionally, detective thrillers follow many police characters, and those usually blend together for me. I find it hard to keep the characters apart and be involved with them.
The Chestnut Man is like other detective thrillers in that way. It has a large cast of police characters who are simply doing their job by trying to solve this case. For some reason, I didn't have any trouble keeping those characters apart, though. They are given backstories, although those play a minor role in the story, which might explain the difference. I had hoped that Rosa Hartung's perspective would provide the personal attachment to the murders, but we didn't follow her perspective as much as I would've liked.
Yet, I know that there are many people who do not have these issues with detective thrillers, and to them I'd like to say: pick up this book. Of all detective thrillers, this might be the best that I have ever read. It is put together cleverly, and the ending was surprising yet made sense. The story is fast-paced, making these 500-something pages fly by, and the writing is vivid, making you gruel at the murder scenes, cringe at the abuse scenes, and your heart will race during the action scenes. There is always something going on, yet the story remains easy to follow without straying too far from what it set out to do. I really enjoyed this book, as much as I could.
(And a little sidenote: I really enjoyed the descriptions of the Danish cities and landscapes. Took me back to two summers ago, and it was a lovely trip down memory lane.)
The Chestnut Man is a debut by Soren Sveistrup, who is also known as the author of the successful series The Killing. This book has also been made into a series and is available on Netflix.
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence
apersonfromflorida's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Child death, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Rape, Trafficking, Stalking, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Adult/minor relationship
carmenvillaman's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture
bipolarblue's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: Animal cruelty and Child abuse
deezy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, and Violence