Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power

18 reviews

violet_pages's review

mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Gun violence, and Violence

Minor: Abortion and Vomit

sunsetcity's review

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, and Toxic relationship

thesincoucher's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

 Power writes fantastically and with Wilder Girls, she became an author I'd instant buy. She has another YA and a fantasy adult coming up next year, which I'm very excited about. I didn't like Burn Our Bodies Down as much as Wilder Girls but they are too different to be compared. What I loved about Burn Our Bodies Down:

- Difficult, toxic mom-daughter relationship handled with care and understanding which doesn't mean forgiveness.
- The main characters is a lesbian and that's very present in the page without needing Margot to be in a relationship. I don't see that much done well and this was A+.
- The whole plot of this is a mystery you are fed bit by bit, which sometimes makes me question if I care enough to keep reading but I really did want to know what was happening. Power is just that good.
- The American landscape - as a European I'm always a bit bewildered when they describe those amounts of empty space and I think they make such nice background for horror stories.
- I love horror and I think this one was done so well in the sense that it was creepy and unsettling.

I feel I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to because 1) the pandemic makes it very difficult with books that are not action-packed, and this is slow-paced and 2) I don't know why but I thought this was going to be fast-paced? which is completely on me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abortion and Murder

lauraeerika's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Abortion

etosaurus's review

dark emotional mysterious tense

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Vomit, Violence, Murder, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Abortion, Ableism, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, and Gore

Minor: Blood

Nonconsensual pregnancy, but without sexual assault/rape

Gaslighting

alfie_and_books's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Abortion

otherworlds's review

mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is interesting, but the pace is much too slow and it throws off the flow of the story. Which is unfortunate, because it really is a good plot!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Death, Cursing, Grief, and Vomit

Minor: Infertility

iviarelle's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I think most good books aren't good because they do something totally new, they're good because they take the established tropes of a format and they fill in the spaces and details in interesting ways. That's what this book does. It's a horror-mystery-thriller about family, and it's such a slow burn (pun intended) that some may find it intolerable. The plot beats are predictable, and the characters thinly developed. And yet, it does a lot of little things that speak deeply to me.

Which is to say, I loved it. As I was reading, I was a little let down that it wasn't more like Wilder Girls, which wasn't fair to this book or to Power. But now that I've finished, the longer I think about it, the more I prefer Burn Our Bodies Down. It's a story I'll be thinking about in off-moments for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Gore, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, and Confinement