Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

69 reviews

dogearedbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Slavery, War, Sexism, Child death, Colonisation, Deadnaming, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, and Racism

lexistwick's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

Although a frequent reader of the 'thriller' genre, horror is pretty new to me - and this was a beautifully executed introduction! I love the setting of the American West (specifically Montana in 1914), and it works perfectly as the backdrop for this strange tale about eccentric folks with things to hide. It takes a particularly talented hand to transform fears into hope, and I'm obsessed with the imaginative ending. A great reminder that belonging and acceptance - but sometimes harsh justice, too - are the ingredients to creating a future robust enough to hold the complexities of our most repulsive, unlovable parts.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, and Death

ktdakotareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Blood, Toxic relationship, Murder, Confinement, and Medical content

rachelle_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book surprised me. I don’t read a lot of horror and was prepared for gratuitous violence. This book wasn’t that. The depth with which the author treated each character, including the demon, was compelling. No one was flat. The setting of rural Montana in winter was depicted so well, too. This is the strangest, most compelling “found family” book I’ve read in a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Violence, Murder, and Blood

fran_buesa's review against another edition

challenging mysterious fast-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racial slurs and Sexual content

bookshelf_al's review against another edition

dark tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Racism

sarahkorn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

5.0

Changed from 4.5 ⭐ to 5 ⭐ because I can't stop thinking about this book.

This book had everything. Lone women. Creepy old timey cowboys. Montana.

This book is atmospheric to the hilt, and a little bit absurd in parts, like David Lynch meets the Montana Hi-line. The whole book felt surreal and ghostly. I went to college in Montana and the small, disappearing towns across the mountains and prairies are chilly reminders of what was once a booming wild west. There's a lot of room for the imagination to run and ghosts to appear.

There were times where the weaving storylines were hard to follow but it didn't take long to catch back on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Murder, Racism, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Gore, Gun violence, and Violence

booksbeyondthebinary's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

This is a perfect story for fans of movies like The VVitch and The Babadook, which both feature elements of slow burn horror. 

At it’s core, this is a story of family and of camaraderie amongst women. I can understand why this wouldn’t work for some people, with the weaving storylines and seemingly throwaway details, but this is a deeply rich story that is genre-defying and will be one that is recommended by me to many.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Transphobia, Racism, and Homophobia

Minor: Child death and Animal death

allapaz's review against another edition

• 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? No

2.0

You know how in some books, the beginning is kind of slow, but then as things get revealed the pace picks up and you can't help but get sucked in? This was like the opposite of that. 

I think it was just me. Reading the other reviews and discussions of this book, maybe this just isn't my genre. I do think this was overhyped and the reviews calling this 'Jordan Peele-esque' are misleading. you have to be into a bit of the absurd to get into this, and something I learned about myself is I am definitely not. There were about 5 different stories going at the same time here, and not in a good way. I had a real tough time with this one, honestly I read it so fast because I wanted to be able to move on from it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Racial slurs, Sexism, Transphobia, Xenophobia, and Racism