Reviews tagging 'Grief'

How to Bite Your Neighbor and Win a Wager by D.N. Bryn

32 reviews

margaret_k30's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical trauma and Medical content

Minor: Child abuse, Alcohol, Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Death, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Grief

its_vendetta's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

SO good!! THE PINING. My only complaint is that it felt a little short like I wanted more of them!! The plot was very intriguing and I like that

the city’s plot doesn’t get resolved and that it continues into the next books with more characters.

It makes it more realistic yet hopeful at the same time. Loved reading about these silly guys 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, and Confinement

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Murder, and Gore

Minor: Kidnapping, Police brutality, Stalking, Torture, Self harm, Death, and Bullying

20sidedbi's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Blood, Violence, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Abandonment, Ableism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Minor: Torture

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

DNF 26%

I will say if I was more a fan of what feels like the setup for a dark romance, I could probably enjoy this book. Unfortunately I do not and the basis for the relationship starting marred the aspects of the book I enjoyed.

This book was genuinely funny, there were plenty of places in the first 26% that made me laugh. I also really liked the character dynamics I saw in this section of the book. Everyone played off each other well and it established character really well. I also liked the way that the book tried to handle some of its themes and tackle modern issues. I also liked the world building and found it really interesting.

However each of these moments I enjoyed the book was coloured by the romance’s setup. The idea is that Vincent (Vamp Boy) is a starving vampire that can’t afford to buy blood. So Vamp Boy breaks into people’s houses to drink their blood w/o knowledge or consent. He ends up breaking into Wes’s (Not Vamp) house several times bc Wes is hot and has really yummy blood and is sometimes thinking about hooking up with him. Meanwhile Not Vamp is getting close to Vamp Boy so he can sell him to an evil pharmaceutical company that he knows will be experiment on and maybe kill Vamp Boy so Not Vamp can get a job there. He wants the job so he can destroy the company for killing his mom.

Despite both of them having questionable morals the book feels like it keeps screaming to justify it and refuses to admit the two aren’t good people. On top of that just being a very gross foundation for a relationship the book just didn’t gel with me.

I also found the writing EXTREMELY repetitive but that’s a forgettable complaint compared to the romance setup.

If dark romance is your thing, this will probably appeal to you. It’s just not for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Blood

Moderate: Classism

Minor: Racism and Grief

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Blood, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Grief, Self harm, Death of parent, and Sexual content

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

alex_baker's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious sad 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

4.0

The two characters are so dumb in the best of ways. Their relationship made me giggle like a lovestruck girlie.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Murder, Stalking, Mental illness, Grief, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Abandonment, Confinement, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Biphobia, Gore, Body horror, Cursing, Alcohol, Genocide, Gun violence, Bullying, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Classism, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, and Stalking

anaisqsn's review against another edition

emotional funny

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

• two queer young men madly in love with each other and achingly bad at communicating
• like really, really bad
• one is a vampire
• mutual pining slowburn
• some (definitely platonic) bite kink
• great narrator making it ten times better

exactly what i needed for long car drives this week. probably will listen to the second book, especially if it's also narrated by Simon Dornet

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

Minor: Bullying and Self harm

booksthatburn's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

Vincent has been sneaking into Wesley's house to bite him at night because his blood tastes so good he can't stay away. Wesley needs a vampire to hand in to a shady pharmaceutical company which experiments on vampires. Wesley wants the access to get information about his mother's disappearance after she signed up for one of the drug trials, but as he gets to know Vincent he starts seeing him as a person rather than just a means to an end. Vincent doesn't trust Wesley enough to confide that he's sleeping rough, hounded by someone who hates him for being a vampire and starts spreading that information to make his life impossible. The vampire hunters who work for the pharmaceutical company use classist tactics to make it impossible for vampires to live stable lives, then further take advantage of the precarity caused by being unhoused and unemployed to further the fear of vampires due to their diet. 

HOW TO BITE YOUR NEIGHBOR AND WIN A WAGER has a self-contained and very satisfying story, featuring a slow exploration of the boundaries between "liking someone who is a vampire" and having a vampire fetish. The romance builds slowly, held back for a while by mutual distrust and fascination which eventually turns into passion. I get very stressed out by stories where at least one of the characters in a relationship is lying, but this was handled in a way that meant I was able to finish the story without being too stressed to keep reading. I like a lot of things about how this was handled, from the worldbuilding sneaking in info about how vampires have existed for hundreds of years (or longer), to Wesley's long-distance best friend who can provide emotional support but can't solve the logistical problems. A lot of excellent storytelling decisions were involved, and I had a great time reading this.

I'm pretty sure one of the minor characters is the protagonist of the next book, but even if I'm wrong, there are some pretty big things that Vincent and Wesley weren't able to handle which could be addressed in future books. I'm looking forward to the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Confinement, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Torture, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Medical trauma, Homophobia, Excrement, and Medical content

mrshays's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Blood

Minor: Grief, Death of parent, Trafficking, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Emotional abuse

bootsmom3's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Ableism, Blood, and Chronic illness