Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong

5 reviews

vonni'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? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Animal death, Car accident, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Medical content

mymercurialnature's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Mental illness, Misogyny, Gore, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

bluejayreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

For a thriller based around the protagonist being unsure if he actually committed the murder, this book is remarkably slow-paced. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it was reasonably interesting. I'm not much of a crime fiction reader, but it was interesting enough. My problem was the ending - it may sound weird to say, but too many questions got answered. I thought the one big underlying question

(whether Yu-jin was born a psychopath or made into a murderer by his aunt's "treatment")

was going to be left ambiguous and up to the reader's interpretation. You could make a solid argument for either answer to the question, and leaving it unresolved would make it more of a theme that the book explored. But the very end of the book just straight-up answered the question. Suddenly that big underlying philosophical question wasn't a theme or something I could think about after I finished the book, but just another question to be answered by the end of a mystery book. What could have been a book that was not particularly my thing but interesting nevertheless lost all appeal with an on-page answer to the big question. And that really ruined the whole book for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Grief and Stalking

Control/manipulation through medical means

deadlamp's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This book was good! The imagery was <33 and I really couldn’t put it down for the last 150 pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Stalking, and Gore

Moderate: Grief

whitney_walton's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

For those who enjoy reading unreliable narrators, crime thrillers or Gillian Flynn novels. Easy to read in a few days, but very dark with difficult scenes. Definitely take note of the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Stalking, Ableism, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Body horror, Car accident, Chronic illness, Grief, Murder, Death of parent, Drug use, and Toxic relationship