Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Gods & Monsters by Shelby Mahurin

18 reviews

selestre's review against another edition

adventurous 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? N/A

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, War, Violence, Vomit, Grief, and Sexual content

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Cursing, Death of parent, Sexual content, Physical abuse, and Confinement

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Hate crime, Gore, Child death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Animal death, Alcohol, Grief, Abandonment, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Infidelity, Stalking, Misogyny, and Cannibalism

humblej's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

beckyyreadss's review

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Someone tell me why I keep doing this to myself, where I think the last book is always going to be better and just because the first and second book was boring means this is going to be better, it wasn’t.  

This book starts exactly where the last book left one, after an important and heartbreaking loss, Lou, Reid, Beau and Coco are bent on vengeance more than ever before and none more so than Lou. But this is no longer the Lou they thought they knew. She is no longer the Lou that captured a chasseur’s heart. A darkness has settled over her, and this time it will take more than love to drive it out. Will Lou and Reid have their happily ever after?  

This book could have been a standalone considering it destroyed the other books which were considerable awful as it was. The author just took the romance and went let’s just possess them because that will make things more interesting. It just felt like nothing was happening for 75% of this book, the possession and the forgotten memories didn’t need to happen. This book could have been cut down by about 400 pages maybe more, she didn’t use those pages to recap anything, she didn’t use those pages to move the storyline along, there was just boring subplots. I struggled with this book as well because I couldn’t give two shits about Reid and Lou, this is one of those books where I was hoping it would be like Allegiant where the MC died.   

I really don’t have anything positive to say about this book expect the chapters with Ansel is the reason he couldn’t have died.  

This book reminds me why I read multiple books at a time, because if I didn’t this book would have put me in a reading slump.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Grief, Cursing, and Sexual content

Minor: Child death and Torture

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: Violence, descriptions of blood and gore, gruesome deaths, self harm, death of a parent, sexual content, cursing 

"Hope isn't the sickness. It's the cure."

Gods & Monsters by Shelby Mahurin is the third and final installment of the Serpent & Dove Series. I'm glad to have finally finished this series, but I don't think overall it quite lived up to the hype. I found the whole middle of this to be quite slow and unnecessary, but the ending really picked up the rating for me. I think part of my problem with this is that I waited so long between reading Blood and Honey and this one, that I forgot most of what happened and who the characters were, so I wasn't in the same headspace when I read this one. Spoilers ahead. 

We pick up with Lou, Reid, Beau, and Coco after that nasty cliffhanger. Lou and Coco are heavily grieving as they also try to figure out how to kill Morgane. We find out that Nicholina, Queen of the Creeps, has possessed Lou, so the gang brings her to L'Eau Mélancolique to exorcise her. Nothing goes as expected of course, but they are saved by Angelica and The Oracle. In the process, Reid has pulled a thread that makes him and Lou's mother forget she exists. Reid trying to get his memory back and erasing all his character development is basically the whole middle of the book, which was kind of annoying. 

As always, Beau is a treasure and Coco is fierce if in denial about her feelings for him. Célie was an unexpected favorite of mine in this book! She has a lot of development, and is very endearing. She even kind of grew on the rest of the group. She is delicate and strong and brave, all while being the perfect lady. 

The last battle really save this for me. Having everyone we've met throughout the series in one place was nice. I think Lou's whole story is about self sacrifice. Isla says she isn't extraordinary, but no ordinary person takes pain onto themselves for others so they don't have to be in pain. It really showed a strength of character for Lou.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Self harm, Sexual content, Death of parent, Death, Blood, and Gore

kat1105's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Classism, Death of parent, Murder, War, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Kidnapping, Death, and Torture

taliatalksbooks's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective 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? No

4.5

Gods & Monsters by Shelby Mahurin was a lovely and fulfilling end to her Serpent & Dove series. I am 100% in love with these characters. All of them. There isn’t a single character I don’t like (that I’m not supposed to). I don’t want to give away anything since this is the finale, but it’s 100% worth the read. It’s fun, spicy, heartbreaking, and comedic. Truly a page-turner from start to finish. If you haven’t started this series, I’m begging you to go get a copy! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Blood and Child death

shelbibroeking's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was a good conclusion to the series, which is hard to do. I wasn’t upset with the pacing—it was just right. The sentimentality and character growth was wonderful, as well. I love this world Shelby has brought us into with Lou and am sad to have to leave it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Child death and Emotional abuse

golden_like_dior's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Animal cruelty, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Genocide, Sexual content, Death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Violence, War, Abandonment, Child abuse, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Murder

alyssasaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Cursing, Grief, Confinement, and Self harm