Reviews tagging 'Death'

All These Bodies by Kendare Blake

36 reviews

sydresnik's review

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slow-paced

3.25

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vismyth's review

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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? It's complicated

2.5

It's a 2 and a half for the interesting setup and initial ambiguity that really does drag you into the story wondering whether there is a supernatural twist or not and what happened to end up with a teenage girl drenched in blood surrounded by bodies
but that ambiguity is never resolved and the ending isnt satisfying enough to make up for it
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notpercyjacksonyet's review

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

2.0

Why did I read this book? I wanted a thrilling mystery, but it ended up being such a slog, all to get a dissatisfying ending. If I wanted to be disappointed in the Justice system and never know the truth, I’d listen to true crime podcasts. I get that it’s supposed to reflect the real world, but that’s not what I want from a book. 
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hyperashley's review

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

1.5

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lsalyer's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

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queerreaderchaos's review

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dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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emilywrayburn's review

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dark 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

2.0

The only word I have to describe this book is "dull". And I feel bad about it. But it just... it promised a gruesome murder mystery and possibly some horror and a deep-dive into the nature of "truth" and what I got was... a lot of talking through the bars of a jail cell.

I actually thought the writing was quite engaging. I flew through the pages. But only because it was easy to read. Not really because I was hooked.

I think the main problem is that everything interesting has already happens when the story starts. Usually in a serial killer murder mystery, the murders keep happening as the story progresses, and the investigators are in a race against time. But there's none of that, really.

All we have is a girl who was found at the crime scene, covered in blood, who claims she didn't kill anyone. Who refuses to talk to anyone but our narrator, and half the time, doesn't even answer his questions. I couldn't get invested in their relationship at all. 

By the end, Michael is willing to put himself at huge risk for her, but I had no idea why. There's a line towards the end where Michael observes that none of the school mates he's grown up with know him as well as Marie does, but I had no reason to believe that. 

The horror elements are kept to a minimum, and honestly, that's to the books detriment. The ending is supposed to be ambiguous, and it achieves that to a point, but some things were left completely loose-ended. 

In the author's note, Kendare Blake explains that this story was inspired by a real life killing spree that took place in a similar area of the US in the 1950s. I think trying to adapt real events while also throwing in elements of the supernatural, made for a little too much for one shortish novel and as a result, it ended up achieving very little. 
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lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

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

4.0

Tense and mysterious, this fictionalized account of a string of unsolved murders, a framed (?) girl, and the sheriff’s son who documents her side of the story kept me up well past my bedtime. As a big fan of Blake’s Buffy novels, I’m glad I picked up this one! Though the somewhat open-ended ending frustrated me a bit, it also made sense given the entire novel.
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elbellreads's review

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

3.5

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echosong's review

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

4.25

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