Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

47 reviews

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

Multiple POVs and a great modern take on a classic spooky creature- vampires. So many different kinds of vampires from different places are mentioned throughout which was nice to see instead of the typical/well known european vampire images we see all the time. How some characters stories ended was a little unsatisfying though, but I need to stop thinking so many characters always need happy or fully fleshed out endings. This story also touches on colonialism when talking about the europeans and their continental vampires arriving in central and south america.

very glad the dog doesn't die tragically in this book! I was nervous and a bit sad when Cualli was mentioned to probably be dead

Also quick note, I felt a bit weird about how Atl and Domingo's relationship went considering it was mentioned she was about 20 (yeah I get she's a diff species but still) and he was 17. I know at first she was like "no way" and had set that boundary, but then they did the do and I was not okay with an adult/minor situation

.

It seemed to drag a little bit in some parts, but overall, a great and surprisingly quick read. I've enjoyed so much from this author and it's a goal that I read everything she has done. 
Def check out content warnings for this as it is a vampire tale so there is a lot of blood.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Vomit, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Blood, and Misogyny

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Sexual content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Colonisation, Gun violence, and War

Minor: Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Torture, Trafficking, Classism, Cursing, and Kidnapping

baytamax's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Medical trauma, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Gore, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Torture

peachani's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Classism and Gun violence

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Colonisation, Drug abuse, and Sexual content

narsere's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual content, and Animal cruelty

sbsreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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

vampire, noir

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

bookbunnie's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Read this if you’re interested in the histories and abilities of multiple vampire subspecies, love a sweet and simple lovestruck character, and enjoy the classic dynamic of detectives, cops and criminals all being equivalently crooked. 

Don’t read this if you want the elegant prose of ethereal vampire angst, need a lot of character development to be satisfied, or want a villain with substance. 

This book explores the characters’ different relationships to solitude in part by examining their living conditions and in part by their actions taken to preserve, avoid, or accept their loneliness. 

It was a simple and easy read, gritty but not unpalatable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Vomit, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Alcohol, Gore, Death, Death of parent, and Misogyny

Moderate: Gun violence, Police brutality, and Genocide

Minor: Confinement

emmdashed's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

Sylvia Moreno-Garcia paints a realized and captivating world in Certain Dark Things. All of the lore she created, this whole sprawling world of different vampires with all their physical and cultural differences were fascinating. However, this does create the issue of the book feeling a little too exposition heavy especially in the beginning. Kind of a Catch-22 she created: we need to know this world, but given that the book is so short creating the individual characters and story may have taken a bit of a back burner to explaining all the lore. At least it was well thought out, interesting lore that kept me reading. 

The main POV characters themselves were fine. I didn't dislike them, but I didn't really fall in love with them either. Least favorite was Nick because he feels like a character we've seen too many times before: brutish and hot-headed, horny, rich boy. Atl and Domingo were alright, I liked them well enough, though I wasn't always sure I bought Domingo's blithe nature and immediate, absolute loyalty when there seemed little reason other than attraction. Ana and Rodrigo were interesting to me. Rodrigo really hit that banality of evil, 'I'm so tired I'll do awful things just to get out a little faster' vibe. Ana also had that scrappy cleverness that made me root for her even when she started doing some some morally gray stuff.

(Honestly she got done dirty by this book. Justice for Ana)

Favorite character by a long shot was Bernadino. Love that Old Honor Bound by Tradition Vampire shit, and he was just fun to read about ?? Also I just was really intrigued by Revenant vampire ideas. 

The plot was also just Fine, not bad, but not incredible. Writing was very good, solid description of scenes and action without going too overboard. I could visualize everything, and enjoyed the words.

I really hope Moreno-Garcia revisits this world in the future. A lot of concepts were touched on that I would love to see more explored. More different vampires, more about the seedy underworld in and out of Mexico City, and more of those near future aspects like the weird illnesses, and the genetically modified animals. Maybe a story in the past too, Bernardino and Atl's mother's lives before this story would be super interesting. 

Overall a solid book if you're okay with a lot of exposition and worldbuilding. I didn't connect with all of it the story but that's probably more personal preference than any real fault with the writing. Like I said hopefully she comes back to this world again!!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Blood, and Colonisation

Moderate: Confinement, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Torture, Rape, Alcohol, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Sexual content

Expanding on the Adult-Minor relationship Atl is 23 (I think? Early-mid 20s) and Domingo is 17, which is the age of consent in Mexico, but not everywhere, so be aware if this is something that may upset you.

magneto's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Picked this book up because I liked the cover design and love a good vampire book but had no context going in. Wound up really loving it and the multi POV format lent itself well to the story, I never found myself thinking a chapter was useless to the story. The world built up in this novel, with its multiple vampire species and the world political situation that results, was really interesting. Will definitely read this again in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Classism and Vomit

niamhyjay's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism

macknificent's review against another edition

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? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, and Suicide

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Animal cruelty, and Drug use