Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

4 reviews

colleen_corleone's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective 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

I wasn't aware how much I loved these characters until the last 35% of the book where I started crying during different emotionally charged scenes.

The humor is wonderful and much needed as more horrific events unfold. I love their banter. I want to use cunting more often in sentences going forward. It's such a fun word to help break up the normal American swearing I do.

I love going into a book relatively blind, but for anyone who needs more context:

There is a cunting lot of gore, assault, death, dismemberment, cannibalism, unintentional necrophilia. That's in most chapters and part of the ever-present background of the world.

The relationship between Thomas and the young girl (whose name you learn later) is beautiful and bittersweet. He takes good if reluctant care of her.

For a general spoiler

Thomas and the girl make a friend whose death was the first time I cried, surprising myself. I didn't realize until thay moment how much I loved loved these characters.

I cried three other times during deaths and hard battles. The general feeling of dread and/or terror keeps a low hum that built when I least expected it.

I am buying a physical copy to reread in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Excrement, Alcohol, Grief, Antisemitism, Animal death, Blood, Vomit, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child death, and Murder

Minor: Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Body horror

vynna's review

adventurous dark medium-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? Yes

3.0

This was a very dark and brutal novel that started off strong, but gradually lost me by its conclusion. The story is set in the 1300s following a disgraced knight, a priest, and an orphaned girl. They set out on a journey through plague ridden France to essentially save the world from demons.
I was really intrigued by this premise and thoroughly enjoyed the banter between the main characters as well as the author’s imagery. I was often scared by the vivid detail used to describe the horrors that these characters experienced.

The stone statues in Paris and the scarecrow in the abandoned convent will stick with me for awhile.

The book felt really epic and cinematic at parts too, and I think it could make a wonderful series due to the episodic nature of the chapters.
I would’ve rated it higher, but sadly the weak plot, confusing narration, and underwhelming ending took away from my enjoyment.
They go on this great journey, but it feels hollow as they just bounce from town to town not exactly sure what they’re doing, just fighting monsters. It was fun to read, but left me wanting more. It isn’t until the last third of the book that it seems like the characters have a plan, but their actions and the aftermath of the big finale didn’t really make sense to me.
Definitely take heed of content warnings before reading as there is a lot of death, violence, strong language, etc. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Cursing, Violence, Rape, Child death, Death, Self harm, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, and Homophobia

kurumipanda's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual violence, Violence, Animal death, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Torture, Cannibalism, Classism, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Outing, War, Xenophobia, Rape, Pedophilia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Infidelity, Self harm, Suicide, and Vomit

seanml's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.75

Not always perfectly coherent, Between Two Fires is still one of the most original and unique horror novels there is. Taking place in medieval France during the sweep of the Bubonic Plague, the book mirrors a classic chivalrous Christian knight’s tale: a journey fraught with varying perils and moral trials to test the knight’s renown. But in this rendition our knight is excommunicate from the church and our perils are Lucifer’s second crusade, continuing on from Paradise Lost’s original war. Recommended if you want an original horror novel, with the caveat that the components of medieval Christianity (Sexism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia) are still part of the setting. 7.5/10.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Violence, Death, Gore, Animal death, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Antisemitism, Self harm, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Infidelity, Outing, Blood, Body horror, Grief, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Rape, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Torture, and Vomit

Minor: Cannibalism, Incest, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Genocide