Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

112 reviews

owlish1's review

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexism, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Incest and Rape

violinknitter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

1.0

I don't often hate-finish a book, but I got too far in this one and stubbornly carried on to the bitter end. Things I hated about this book:

* Protagonist is supposed to have some sort of experience with investigation, yet makes really amateurish mistakes with evidence handling and communication with firefighters/cops.

* Protagonist has supposedly found a home at the convent where she is now, but dislikes most of the people there. Why does she supposedly love this place?

* I know "incompetent/corrupt officials" is a trope for a good reason, but you still should SHOW it on the page, instead of expecting your readers to assume it because of the genre of the book.

*

Mother superior becomes arsonist because of childhood SA?? Don't love that, especially with it thrown in as a last minute explanation instead of a carefully explored theme.

And, on a personal note (haha), the presentation of music and especially music education was laughably bad. Just, no. But so few authors get that even close to right.

NB: Though I think there are significant missteps by the author, I do think there are some strengths to the writing. I think Douaihy does a beautiful job of writing atmospherically about the convent and New Orleans, and characterization & dialogue were also strong. It wasn't enough to save the book for me, but other readers may have a different experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Child abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence

clacksee's review

challenging hopeful reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

4.5

After a traumatic experience, Sister Holiday is determined  to start her life over again. But the fire follows her. And even though this time it’s not her fault, someone’s determined to pin it on her. 

This story features both a cat and a dog. One lives, one dies. The death is off-page and non-graphic, but traumatic nonetheless. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child abuse

rebb003's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Drug use

jcnstntn's review

dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

midnightcxreal's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Violence, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

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

rockinrodriguez's review

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

Lol 
Thought this would be a fun mystery that was about a cool lesbian nun that shows how *cool* Catholicism is but turns out religious people have and always will be a certain kind of weird 
I never knew the turns this book would take and loved how ridiculous it was. You’re telling me that she

Loses both of her moms to bizarre fire incidents? And everyone’s on drugs and cheating?  

it’s absurd and I’m into it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Homophobia and Terminal illness

runningonwords415's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

There was a lot I liked about this book and a lot of gaps that I saw as well. I loved the setting - NOLA and the Catholic Church/ school really spoke to me. I loved the redemption arc of Sister Holiday and the grittiness of her character. The secondary characters really dragged this story down, though. They couldn’t hold a candle to her stellar development. Everyone felt forced, half baked, or predicable, so I really struggled in any scene that wasn’t just a moment that Sister was processing on her own. There are a ton of trigger warnings I wasn’t expecting, especially with arson and burning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Homophobia, and Medical content

sidneyreads_'s review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Incest, Rape, and Violence

Minor: Addiction and Lesbophobia