Reviews tagging 'Gore'

When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

37 reviews

toofondofbooks_'s review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

This book is short but it packed a huge gut punch for me. I couldn't read it at night because I would get too upset and overwhelmed by the detail and sheer horror of everything that was happening, but I still really liked it. The writing was immersive and gorgeous, made even better by listening to the audiobook while I read along physically. I usually hate romantic subplots in thrillers and horror, but I honestly thought that the one happening here was believable and I was rooting for it. The only thing that gives me pause is that I wanted a little more from this ending and there are some things that I would like clarification on re: the supernatural element. In some ways, I totally get why it ended the way it did and why I won't get that clarification, but it would still be nice to have it not end so abruptly and to have some answers. Overall, this was a good one. Authors using horror to address real life issues are one of my favorite types of authors to read so I will definitely look out for more from this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Torture, Death, Rape, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Classism, Sexual assault, Body horror, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Alcohol, Police brutality, and Child death

brookey8888's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This isn’t horror like scary ghost and slashers. It’s the horror of history and men. 

The start of this was kind of boring I’m not going to lie because nothing really happened. But the last like 20% had my jaw on the floor multiple times and not because it’s necessarily shocking, but because it was so disturbing and anger inducing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Death, Cultural appropriation, Rape, Classism, Colonisation, Child death, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Cursing, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Hate crime, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

ska1224's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual harassment, Murder, Gun violence, Death, Sexual assault, Hate crime, Gore, Racism, Blood, Classism, Racial slurs, Violence, Slavery, Sexual violence, Rape, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

nanimao's review

fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Rape, and Gore

carax561's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Death, Gore, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Confinement, Rape, and Child abuse

allisonfagan's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I felt like this book was very heavy but had enough mystery and twists to keep you engaged. 70% through I felt like we were running nonstop (in the best way possible). Overall this story really made me reflect on the atrocities of slavery and made me realize how even I was desensitized to it to a certain degree.  It truly should never be a topic to be made light of and was probably one of the worst things to happen in human history. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Cultural appropriation, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Slavery, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Rape, Racism, Physical abuse, Confinement, Murder, and Police brutality

rorikae's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

'When the Reckoning Comes' by LaTanya McQueen is a haunting story about the echoes of ghosts of the past. 
When she was young, Mira and her friend Jesse encountered something haunting in the old, rundown plantation in their town. Though they both got out alive, that experience has haunted them both and sent them on different trajectories. Mira has left the town, gone to college, and now has a full time job. She thinks she's fully escaped her past but then she receives a call from her childhood friend Celine. Celine is getting married at the same plantation from Mira's youth, which has now been restored and acts as a tourist attraction. With Celine's insistence, Mira agrees to come home for the wedding, seeking to get to the bottom of what happened that day in her youth and to potentially see Jesse again. 
McQueen does an exceptional job of creating a haunting atmosphere that slowly ramps up throughout the course of the book. These horrors are all based on true events but with an added dash of paranormal. There were moments in this book that were hard, but necessary, to read as McQueen makes the reader confront the true horrors of slavery. One of the most effective aspects of this story is the melding of the past and present day elements. Mira is a great main character who is easy to care for while also being a complex person. I will be interested to see what McQueen writes next as it is clear she is great at creating atmosphere and melding horrors of the past and present to create an engaging narrative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Sexual violence, Racism, Torture, Misogyny, Murder, Death, Gore, Grief, Violence, Hate crime, and Slavery

Minor: Suicide and Rape

thiszetasajerk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.0

I didn’t like how the ending played out. I felt like it was unfair that the black woman was the one who was truly subjected to the whores of slavery. Meanwhile, the white people who, needed to do the most learning, got off easy. I don’t like that  most  of the gruesome details were done to the African-American characters, and when it came time for the white characters to experience death, all but one, was relatively quick.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Gore, Child death, Sexual content, Slavery, Rape, Racism, Pregnancy, Murder, Child abuse, Body horror, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Torture, Suicide, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Hate crime, Gun violence, and Blood

honeycruller's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Overall, I liked the book. I was looking for something similar to Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward so I gave this a go. My only qualm is that there were several points where there was more tell than there was show. There would be a beautiful (and accessible) metaphor, then two paragraphs later it would be spelled out for the reader. I understood it the first time, I don’t need the metaphor explained thank you. There was some very graphic scenes near the end, violence and gore but it’s not unrealistic … humans are awful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Torture, Violence, Gore, and Death

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

The scenes where they talk about things being made of human flesh, the flesh of the enslaved people, literally had me so nauseous I thought I was going to be ill.

amris's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Racism, Violence, Murder, Slavery, Torture, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Police brutality, Toxic friendship, and Classism