Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor

36 reviews

sare1125's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Religious bigotry

clarkg's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

While the story itself is compelling and well-written, this book has some serious problems with regards to its representations of Black, disabled, and queer people. There is a particularly gruesome depiction of Black, queer, low-income women that leans heavily on violent "welfare queen" stereotypes, made worse by the fact that the book has no positive examples of people of color in its main cast of characters. Additionally, this book contains a disability trope/storyline that I found to be in extremely poor taste. I believe in giving people grace and room to grow, but at least within the confines of this story, I wish that the author had been more mindful of how her choices work to reinforce harmful societal narratives about marginalized communities. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Violence, Murder, Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Moderate: Gore, Child death, Child abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Classism, Murder, Racism, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Stalking, Ableism, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Bullying

Minor: Sexism, Misogyny, Deadnaming, Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Dementia, and Animal death

the_bookish_hungarian's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Torture, Vomit, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Child death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Pedophilia and Pregnancy

katietreebee's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

4.5

Dark and brutal and had me hooked from the first page! Not my usual genre but CJ Tudor is fast becoming a favourite of mine. Also it had multiple references to The Lost Boys, which is always a win in my book

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Suicide, Violence, Bullying, Murder, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual assault

kyra_joy's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Okay, so the beginning of this books gets like 4 or a 5, but the end just kind dropped it, the finally reveal didn’t really feel like it made sense with the character we follow. In the end I was confused about the main characters thoughts throughout the book once I got there. The writing is fine and the characters were enjoyable just seems like the main character is aware she is in a mystery and can’t let the reader know stuff.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Murder, Religious bigotry, Blood, Pedophilia, and Fire/Fire injury

quillyreads's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Murder

Minor: Pedophilia

lindseylosers's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Body horror, Pedophilia, Stalking, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Child death, Suicide, Death, Violence, and Animal death

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Bullying, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Minor: Gun violence, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Outing

luverbyrd's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Unfortunately I was able to easily guess the major twist of this book. I did still get a small surprise with the minor twist but overall a little disappointed by the end of the book. I feel like a lot of my disappointment involves minor or major spoilers so I'm not going to say much. I felt the characters were a little flat or misrepresented, the major things that make this book "spooky" were kinda shrugged off, and I didn't like that the ending still felt like nothing happened or changed much.
Despite my disappointment I did still enjoy the read, otherwise this would have promptly been DNFd but I just wasn't fully satisfied.
Maybe I will like past books by this author more because I did like the flow of the writing.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Violence

Minor: Suicide, Pedophilia, Torture, and Toxic relationship

nialiversuch's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Mental illness, Animal death, Abandonment, Bullying, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Child death, Murder, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Drug use, Vomit, Drug abuse, and Car accident

lydiavsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

This was a lot of fun, my second C.J. Tudor book and I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for more of hers.

I really enjoyed all of the overlapping mystery plots that ran throughout this, and the tension maintained throughout. Great characters that were easy to get attached to, but complex and mysterious at the same time. I loved the small town setting, the historical witchy/occult vibes, and some of the wider themes explored.

My only minor criticisms is some unnecessary romance plots that for me felt a little forced in there, but thats a personal preference and they were very minor parts of the story. And secondly, there's the whole main character knows something we don't but won't tell us plot throughout that I normally find quite irritating in thrillers, but tbf I didn't mind it so much in this.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Sexual assault, Death, Bullying, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, and Violence