Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

36 reviews

epeolatri's review against another edition

1.5

This had SO MUCH potential. I mean a queer crime solving nun?? 

It was so boring though. Most of the book was the narrator talking about sweat mixed in with retellings of her traumatic past. The main character did absolutely no “sleuthing” either. 

The .5 is for the last chapter alone, in which we learn the motive and the arsonist, neither of which I guessed. I just wish it didn’t feel so rushed. 

Also, I really need authors to start researching disabilities before writing about them. There’s a scene where a diabetic is given insulin for hypoglycemia, which would have probably killed him in real life. Please don’t ever do that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Murder, Mental illness, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Police brutality, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia

Minor: Animal death

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

Honestly way over-hyped :/ I really wanted to like it but within the first descriptions of the MC (and her former love life) there was an offhandedly biphobic description of her ex which basically made me hate the MC from the get go.
The mystery was easily predictable and not a single character was likeable. The story also (unsurprisingly) felt VERY white bc no non-white characters felt fully developed or interesting. There was also *no* mention about police brutality in regards to race - ONLY to queer people - which felt insane not to include given the fact that a young Black student was a suspect the entire time. I’m super disappointed in the author for not having any insight to that.
My last complaint was that the entire thing was also extremely cis-centered (as in transness wasn’t even a THOUGHT to the life of the MC which is always suspicious when the person is a ~feminist lesbian (potential terf?))

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Animal death, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Death, Classism, Addiction, Sexism, Racism, Incest, Homophobia, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Drug use, Confinement, Cancer, Rape, Child death, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Outing, Murder, Drug abuse, Self harm, Alcohol, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Grief, and Alcoholism

maddiereadswords'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

1.5

Read this for a queer book club, and honestly I might have DNF-ed if I hadn't wanted to finish it for the discussion. I think part of it is just that I'm not a huge fan of hard-boiled noir in general, so it's already starting at a disadvantage, but also this book still overall felt like a draft; there are a lot of interesting ideas and concepts, but nothing feels fully fleshed out. All the characters with the exception of Holiday feel completely one-dimensional, and speaking of Holiday, her backstory is so drawn-out that by the time we got to what actually happened to send her to New Orleans, I hardly even cared anymore, but also the backstory was so ridiculously over the top and horrifying that I didn't even want it. Literally the last hundred or so pages of this book felt so needlessly brutal, and it just left me so uncomfortable at the end. Also as other reviewers have mentioned, there are basic things that are just wrong? Everything about diabetes, as well as the fact that there are A TON of Catholic schools in New Orleans and the surrounding area, both of which feel like things that should have gotten picked up on in another round of editing and revision. 

Literally the only reason this book is higher than 1 star (which literally just means I finished it) is that every once in a while she would drop an absolute BANGER of a line about Catholicism or the intersection of religion and queerness, and as a lesbian who grew up Catholic and is still nebulously religious, I LOVED that. I wanted so much more of that!! But instead most of what I got was a shoddy, boring mystery with forgettable characters, and a whole lot of trauma right at the end. I know this is meant to be the first in a series, and I truly hope that time and practice can smooth out some of the issues I had with this book. I could see myself potentially picking up another Sister Holiday mystery in the future just to see how on earth she moves on from this book, but I'm not optimistic that I'll like it any better than this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Sexual assault, Cancer, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, and Homophobia

lady_bountiful's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Drug use, Sexual content, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, and Animal death

Minor: Suicide, Child abuse, and Incest

philli17's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

Moderate: Self harm, Violence, Homophobia, and Suicide

Minor: Sexual violence, Incest, and Rape

oliverreeds's review

dark funny medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Cursing, Incest, Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Murder, Rape, Religious bigotry, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Suicide

brigettes's review

fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Homophobia, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Drug use

Minor: Religious bigotry, Grief, and Vomit

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!

brianna_moye's review

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Murder, Suicide, Drug use, and Alcoholism

Minor: Religious bigotry, Homophobia, and Rape

madsw14's review

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Bullying, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Cancer, Drug use, Death, Rape, Animal death, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Murder, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Addiction

Minor: Infidelity, Incest, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Fatphobia, Self harm, Confinement, and Sexual harassment