Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

85 reviews

grrrcait's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Animal death, Murder, Colonisation, Violence, Self harm, Gore, Bullying, Blood, and Torture

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Lesbophobia

asbld123'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty

ska1224's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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? Yes

5.0

them 🤲

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Confinement, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, War, Violence, Self harm, Death, and Hate crime

evelphysicist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: War

miblette's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

The pacing was a bit all over the place for me. There were moments I really enjoyed, but a vast majority of the middle of the story dragged on for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Murder, Body horror, Gore, and Self harm

moonchild_cos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Vomit, Antisemitism, Grief, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Bullying, War, and Abandonment

Minor: Torture, Child abuse, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Bullying, Colonisation, Death of parent, Confinement, Grief, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Violence, Genocide, Gore, Religious bigotry, Torture, Blood, Racism, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual content, Infertility, and Sexual assault

immovabletype's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

3.25

man, i thought this was going to be a solid 4 stars for a good chunk of the novel, while we're following the two main characters on a quest of sorts. this is hate-to-love, and throughout their journey they're grappling with preconceptions about each other based on centuries of hatred and oppression between their people (the fantasy is very cleverly based on pagan, christian, and jewish mythology, with all the attendant real world conflicts--the author "has a degree in political science . . . focusing on religion and ethnonationalism" and her expertise shows). grappling while wanting to grapple each other, if you know what i mean. it makes for a very intimate narrative, slow-paced but propulsive . . . but then the journey ends, the world opens up, and our two lovers are separated. what was compelling me to keep reading just kind of dropped out of sight for a while and i found it harder to pick up as much as i had been, and even after they were reunited it never quite got that spark back for me. and then i loathed the epilogue.

idk. there were things that happened in the latter part of the book that i liked and i think were necessary to forward the narrative and themes. however. it just could've been done better. i will also say, this is sold as adult fantasy. i would argue it feels a lot more ya. the heroine is almost a classic ya heroine, the tropes are very ya tropes. these aren't necessarily bad things, but that's not gonna work for everyone, so i wanted to make a note of it.

i did enjoy this for the most part, i'm glad i read it because now i know that ava reid is gonna knock it out of the park for me someday (this was a debut). i'm quite looking forward to reading more from her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Religious bigotry, Violence, Murder, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Genocide, Sexual content, and Death of parent

Minor: War

Genocide is

a constant threat, but no genocide actually occurs.

abibea's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Blood, Antisemitism, Violence, Genocide, and Self harm

chrispybacon's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

The book had a strong premise but poor execution. I was excited to have a heroine in her mid-twenties but Evike is so dumb I could not relate to her at all. None of her relationships are healthy - the Yehuli want her to convert (they also help her but they are very interested in her joining them), her love interest is a coward and also her jailer, her whole village physically and verbally abused her. Her life was shit and I would have left all of them in the dirt. It makes zero sense to return to her abusers. 
The plot is a lot of walking, being horny, being angry, being horny, plans backfiring, suffering deadly injuries but surviving them, more being horny and more walking. Somewhere in there were aspects of accepting yourself, growing into your powers (and loosing them), and conflicts about religions and cultures clashing which suffered greatly under all the rest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death of parent, Abandonment, Antisemitism, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Blood, Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, and Torture