Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power

21 reviews

fanboyriot's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Read For:

Small Town

Creepy Vibes

Family Secrets

Mommy Issues

Supernatural Elements

Margot grew up with her mom reminding her it was them against the world; they didn’t need anyone else.  Growing up in an emotionally unstable and abusive household she looks for other family only to find her grandmother's number.  Looking for answers and a link to the comforting family she craved she sneaks away to visit a grandmother she had never met.  The small town isn’t what she expected and the answers she gets are far from comforting.  Maybe it would have been better if she never went to begin with.

This book still has me questioning what I just read.  I have so many questions about the last few chapters.  I read this in a buddy read and we both seemed to have the same questions only to get to the end and never learn the answers to them.

I really did enjoy this book though.  The writing style of the majority of this book was so good, that it was intriguing and entertaining.  The author did such an amazing job with the setting of this book, bringing in the creepy vibes of a small town and unknown family secrets that left me wanting to read the next chapter.  However, it kinda lost me with most of the supernatural elements, I think the idea could have been better if it wasn't such an open-ended/rushed ending.  I’ve noticed this with this author's work before so maybe it's just her writing style or something.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ (4/5)

Release Date: 07, July 2020

POV: First Person

Spice: n/a

Rep: Lesbian (MC)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Mental illness, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Medical content, Murder, Abandonment, Body horror, Cursing, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Abortion, Child death, Gun violence, Pregnancy, and Infertility

eeriekeri's review

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.5

Horrifying, claustrophobic.

The supernatural, the gore. It's nothing compared to the choking feeling that suffuses every conversation between mother and daughter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, Vomit, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Minor: Pregnancy and Abortion

cthulhussy's review

dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Abandonment and Vomit

Minor: Abortion and Body horror

knarlyknees'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Gaslighting, and Gun violence

bethebluebook's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Murder, Gaslighting, Vomit, and Blood

grrrlbrarian's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I almost hit DNF about halfway through and kind of wish I had. Margot as a narrator is so melodramatic about everything, it made it difficult to care about anything in the story. The audiobook narrator was also giving it 100% on the emotional scale at all times, which again just felt like too much. I enjoyed the premise and the building tension through the story, as well as the lush and sometimes disturbing descriptions. The ending just felt like it belonged to a different story, there were too many loose ends and questions still remaining for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Blood, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Murder, Body horror, Death, and Vomit

Moderate: Pregnancy, Violence, Gun violence, and Abandonment

Minor: Abortion and Confinement

christinacarrie's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

I have to be honest I got to chapter 8 of this book in November and I had to put it down. I was not having a good time and i thought about dnf’ing it but I wasn’t ready to give up on it. I finally picked it back up in May (yes it took 6 months) and damn if it didn’t finally pick up around chapter 10. It was exactly the weirdness that I loved about Rory Powers’ book Wilder girls and damn if the end of this book wasn’t a wild ride. Definitely check trigger warnings of this book before you read it cause the fires are just the beginning of the insanity in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Vomit, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Minor: Abortion and Gaslighting

mischabkits's review

challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Really good story, amazing emotion. The only reason I wouldn’t give it 5 stars is because there were times that I found it difficult to understand what I was reading. Loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Murder

Moderate: Grief, Vomit, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Cursing, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Abortion

astralbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Gaslighting, and Murder

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Abortion

rnowicki1's review

dark

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Gun violence