Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

All These Bodies by Kendare Blake

4 reviews

vixenreader's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.5

The ending is anti-climatic, but the story still has an interesting perspective in how individual view and rationalize their own truths, despite never really knowing the truth. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Misogyny, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, Medical content, Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Sexual content, Vomit, and Cursing

Minor: Car accident, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

There is also scenes of imprisonment and guilt, as well as disturbing mythology.

taryn_g's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Gore

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, and Sexism

Minor: Child abuse, Rape, and Sexual violence

vinsynt's review

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

At first, it reads like a slow-burn psychological thriller in YA style, but bit by bit this story becomes even more sinister.

Somehow Blake makes the ending explicitly predicted by the characters in the novel into a completely unpredictable ending.

Might want to read this one with the lights on; you probably won’t sleep tonight.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Sexual violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

monalyisha's review

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Not at all what I was expecting. This YA murder mystery, with a Criminal Minds meets SVU vibe, is more about the Horror(s) that people are capable of when they’ve been hurt than it is about jump scares or supernatural beings. Though it’s true that vampires have always been about power & sexual politics (which is why it was so thrilling that the first vampire featured on Buffy was female…but I digress). 

A slow read with some style issues. I’ve never read Kendare Blake before…& I wasn’t bowled over. This felt pretty dry with a lot more telling than showing. I also wonder about the choice to only write from a male character’s POV when part of the problem *is* the male gaze. Does Blake’s authorial choice help to drive the point home? Or, is it a cop out to maintain the mystery?

I appreciated Marie’s insistence that *she* be the one to decide which parts of her story were important and which weren’t, & Blake’s overall focus on the dangers of womanhood (both as victim and perpetrator). Her message about the public’s limited imagination (when it comes to gender & other, equally fictitious topics) is a strong one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Murder, Violence, Blood, Rape, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence