Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox

15 reviews

rhi_'s review against another edition

dark 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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

chelbelle122's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

Olympic medal in mansplaining and gaslighting. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

beucleral's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, and War

libraryghost's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Dementia, Blood, War, Gaslighting, Death, Toxic relationship, and Grief

gracescanlon's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Grief, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gaslighting, and Sexism

Minor: Alcohol, Dementia, and Suicidal thoughts

mrsasimmons11516's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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? No

5.0

This book is not what you think, but kind of in the best possible way. It was unhinged in parts, it was sweet, haunting, creepy, devastating.... its a Rollercoaster but also a form of mystery I've never encountered before and it was a good time. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Sexism, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, War, Classism, Confinement, Death, and Misogyny

kayemm's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

This is one of the best fantasy/ paranormal books I've read in a very long time. You're going to have questions at the end when you first read it. Trust me when I say go back and read it again and you'll understand the brilliance of the book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Murder, Death of parent, War, Mental illness, Dementia, and Death

chasekj's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.5

It was good, but some bits were predictable and left much to be desired

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

the_crooked_neighbor's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

1.5

This book stressed me out. I wish the description more accurately portrayed what the book would be about and I wish it had trigger warnings. I take part of the blame for not checking more thoroughly beforehand. If you like mysteries with psych horror elements you might like this. If you saw this and thought, "I love books about books," take a strong pass.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Confinement, and Dementia

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Torture, Medical trauma, Drug use, Gun violence, Medical content, and Sexual content

A heavy focus of this book is

memory loss. As we see the story through the eyes of the person with memory loss, it builds a tense sense of anxiety as we see her struggling to confront the fact that she is slowly losing her mind. Proceed with caution if loss of autonomy and sense of self will trigger you.

displacedcactus's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

This book had all of the basic components for a Gothic: 

• Orphaned young woman of meager financial means.  
• Crumbling manor on the moors.  
• Servants who know more than they're letting on.  
• A handsome, charming, wealthy suitor who is definitely up to no good but the heroine doesn't notice.  
• A rough, gruff man of meager financial means who is clearly soft on the heroine but she doesn't notice.  
• Spooky shenanigans.

You might think that surely, the author would do some interesting things with these tropes and archetypes, this being 2023 and the Gothic being a well-worn genre. But no. Everything basically turns out how you would probably expect it to if you have ever read a Gothic or watched a Gothic movie.

I was cruising right along with this book, not really loving it but not disliking it enough to DNF, and hoping it would maybe surprise me in the end, but then at around 80% in it just got so over-the-top, the writing seemed to decrease in quality, and I just got completely annoyed.

If you have never read a Gothic before, OR you enjoy the genre and specifically want a predictable version of it, you'll probably enjoy this. But if you're looking for someone to innovate or turn tropes on their head, don't bother picking this up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Classism and Sexism