Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

6 reviews

grunbean's review

dark mysterious 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

3.0

The first half of this book would’ve been a two and half stars for me. The second half was closer to three and a half stars. But the ending was like reading something that had a deadline, and the author realised it was due the night before. 

The idea of a queer nun detective is fresh, and I enjoyed that aspect of it. I think the religious trauma and exploration of what it’s like to grow up queer in these communities was interesting. But these didn’t really have much to do with the story of THIS book. A lot of the book didn’t have much to do with the story and mystery. I don’t know whether I’m not smart enough and I didn’t pick up on all the clues, or whether the answer to the mystery was shoe horned in at the end.

I found myself questioning the choices of the characters a lot. Not because they’re bad, but because their choices just didn’t make sense to me in the context. 

Given that this is a series I feel like more time was spent on building up this world and characters for the series than on the story. It sort of felt like the author remembered there was a mystery to answer at the very end. It gave me whiplash, but not in the ‘oh my gosh I don’t know how I didn’t see this coming’ way. It was more of like ‘was I meant to see this coming’ way. If that makes sense. 

There’s a lot of promise and the writing is beautiful in places. The author definitely has a flair for description. There’s a lot of promise, but it doesn’t deliver here. I will be picking up the next book in the series out of curiosity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Death of parent, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Car accident, Rape, and Violence

tarasoraptor's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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

1.5

Tl;dr version: This reads as trauma porn disguised as a mystery. The plot twist was predictable, the concl sion was hurried, poorly structured, and unsatisfying. If I wasn't finishing the book at midnight, in bed next to my partner, I would have thrown it across the room in frustration.

Will come back to review in more detail if I can.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Alcohol, Classism, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Incest, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Drug use, Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexism, Self harm, Terminal illness, Cursing, Death, Police brutality, Murder, Rape, and Sexual harassment

creepycrawlybookworm's review against another edition

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

This wasn’t your average thriller, it was dark and gritty, but slightly slower paced than many people may prefer, with some dark humour thrown in too.
I appreciated the brutal honesty of the story and the inclusion of plenty of important issues, but can see why this may not suit everyone if they expected something else.
The prose was beautiful, and full of colour and light, with the description of place and character just enough to draw me into the story. There were a few slightly repetitive parts, and loose ends that could have been tied up, but seeing as this is the start of the series, I’m assuming that they will be in the next book. I can’t wait to read it when it comes out!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Grief, Addiction, Cancer, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Minor: Rape and Pedophilia

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

I would read another in this series because the premise is interesting. I also appreciated the reveal. But it had a little much ultra-heavy hinting to the backstory until I wanted to scream "JUST TELL ME WHAT TO HECK HAPPENED TO YOU A FEW YEARS AGO GOD." I also felt like 7/8 of the book was kind of pressing forward and at a pretty slow pace and then the last 1/8 was really rushed and everything happened at once. Okay, and I also felt like the running themes and motifs were much farther on the smack-you-in-the-face side of the spectrum than the oh-i-could-see-that side. Also I think I wanted more fighting against god, but that's my personal issue. But I think it has potential! And I would listen to Mara Wilson read an ingredient list, and I'm not even kidding.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Cancer, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Infidelity, Grief, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Violence

Minor: Sexual harassment, Suicide, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Incest, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Addiction, Child abuse, Sexual content, Car accident, and Confinement

Please avoid if fire freaks you out!

zarap's review against another edition

Nottt a fan. The writing wasn't great, to start with - I don't dislike stream of consciousness generally, but it just did not work for me here. I wasn't invested in the present storyline, Holiday's back story, or any of the characters, all of whom felt pretty flat to me. I was bothered by the fact that halfway into the book, the Catholic church's views on gay people hadn't been addressed despite Sister Holiday being a lesbian (one of the other nuns is homophobic and Holiday's just...fine with it?). I was even more bothered by

Sister Holiday's repeatedly hitting a disabled student (after he says some pretty bad/threatening stuff, but nonetheless, *student*) and knowing she "crossed a line" but not feeling any remorse or, up to this point, experiencing any consequences.

. This was on my list of anticipated 2023 releases, so I'm sad it didn't live up to my hopes, but if I could rate it, it'd be a 2 star at best. Also, if you do want to check it out, definitely check CWs first. There's some very dark stuff in the back story, as well as some in the present day narrative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Rape and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Homophobia

littlelili1320's review

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It took a bit for me to get into this. It could be due to my biases against Christianity caused by my upbringing. I'm also bisexual. I just found it hard to believe that such a queer, "punk" girl would be so religious. I can understand wanting to escape & become a nun after the trauma, but even before that she had a bunch of Christian tattoos & spoke scripture while fooling around with a girl. I found myself rolling my eyes at both her & the nuns. 

Thankfully, more of her ideas about God come forth & it's far more believable. The book also picked up pace. I did guess the cuplrit but that's fine. An animal does die, which seemed unecessarry. I did overall enjoy the book. I look forward to reading the next one. If she does decide to take her vows & she doesn't secretly act on her sexuality I might get pissed lol. I really don't think it would be believable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Homophobia

Moderate: Rape, Incest, and Infidelity

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Cancer, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Car accident, Confinement, Death, Sexism, and Toxic relationship