Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Les Somnambules by Chuck Wendig

10 reviews

thecrimsoncorsair's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad 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

Other than the fact that Wendig absolutely loves the word canoodle far too much, and needlessly made this book longer than was necessary. It really was a fantastic book. I couldn't stop listening to it. Blew through the whole thing in a few days. I had to know what was going on with the big mystery surrounding the white mask disease. And it sadly ended pretty much how I figured it would. Which wasn't very surprising at all. Pretty cliche ending, but I am excited to start on the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gaslighting, Police brutality, Rape, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Cannibalism, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Bullying, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, Dementia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Body shaming, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Classism, Cursing, Gore, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Drug use, Racism, War, Alcohol, Excrement, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

Minor: Cancer

keyofthekey's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Body horror, Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racial slurs, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Cursing, Hate crime, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Death

jgeter's review against another edition

The political commentary was so overt. Against Trump, right wing extremists, AI and Christian’s. The preacher character says the Bible is just a book and modern Christian’s don’t subscribe to it all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Self harm, Racism, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Rape, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

vhgunter's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Racism, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Antisemitism, Alcohol, and Pedophilia

readerrho's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Bullying, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Gore, Rape, Terminal illness, Racial slurs, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Torture

yruss972's review against another edition

dark slow-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

2.0

Too dark, dystopian, and violent for me.
12 monkeys meets The Walking Dead meets The 100

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, War, Drug abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual violence, Slavery, Vomit, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Medical content, Racism, Hate crime, Abandonment, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Grief, Violence, Death, Rape, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Torture, Physical abuse, and Racial slurs

valjeanval's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Powerful book especially in the post 2020 world. Hard to believe it was published in 2019. Definitely hard to read at times but one of the few books I had trouble putting down at night because I needed to know what happened next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Hate crime, Torture, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Chronic illness, Confinement, Death of parent, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide, Violence, Sexual assault, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Dementia, Grief, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Drug abuse, Medical content, Drug use, Dementia, and Cursing

rely's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved the plot. I liked mist if the characters but Shana drove me nuts. She took me out of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Violence, War, Antisemitism, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Rape, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Classism, Cursing, Misogyny, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Kidnapping

buck50's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

There’s a really fantastic story here. Unfortunately it’s buried under some really awful and ultimately pointless subplots. The core medical mystery and characters are really written- it’s tense, it’s weird, you can feel the characters grasping at straws to figure out what is happening. 

BUT: there’s an entire hackneyed subplot about a pastor and his family, and a violent militia and its leader and its just… awful. The story grinds to a halt every time Matthew and Ozark are the subject. They really don’t add anything and Mathew the character is a cliche, his story arc is a cliche and he’s just 100% unlikeable. Ozark is supposedly a racist Hoosier drug dealer but clearly the author has never been to Indiana. His dialogue is also cliche, his violence utterly gratuitous- do we really need

a graphic description of Ozark raping Mathew?

or honestly any of the other violence? It’s not like I’m against reading about violence it’s more that, we get it- Ozark and his crew are violent people. We don’t need more descriptions.

The ending is… meh. Because it’s been over complicated with a huge racist militia subplot the ending is just overly complicated and over wrought.

We suddenly learn things at the very end of the book that were mentioned in passing very early in the book, and we are meant to feel like this is exposition that changes everything. 

A good editor could have cut this in half and turned it into one really good medical horror story and one cliche preacher and evil story. But instead what you get is an imitation of Steven king without the charm.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Body horror, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, War, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Kidnapping

frozencusser's review against another edition

Anal rape with gun oil in a plot device that has nothing to do with the sci-fi part of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Torture, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Violence, Body horror, and Physical abuse