Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Pines by Blake Crouch

22 reviews

brittneyn125's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality

Moderate: Gore, Murder, and Grief

Minor: Cursing, Car accident, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting

schnaucl's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

I liked it, although the more I thought about it, the less the premise made sense. 

The book mentions that people aren't allowed to talk about books that were available outside of Wayward Pines.  With such a small population, I'm guessing there aren't many talented writers, and even if there were, how would they get published?  But it's not just books that would date people, it's all forms of entertainment, film, music, games, even sports.  But to avoid giving away the game on the different time periods you'd also have to eliminate politics, history, technology, slang, fashion, social attitudes. The book was published in 2012 and think about what's changed just since then.  People spend a lot more time on their cell phones, which are much more powerful than they were in 2012.  Almost everyone relies on their cell phones to be their cameras.  Digital storage is cheap.   We had the backlash to the Obama years with the Trump years.  Abortion is illegal again in much of the country.  Baseball has a pitch clock.   Pickeleball is a thing. 

And think about how people get to know each other.  They talk about the things they're interested in, like entertainment.  But under these rules you've eliminated that shared cultural understanding.

And that's before you get to no one being able to leave town (no matter how idyllic eventually people are going to want a change of scenery) and the nights where you're suddenly forced to brutally murder someone you probably know personally.   And since there are multiple reintegration attempts, how are you supposed to remember if the conversation you had with someone was the current integration attempt or a prior one?

I absolutely believe that telling people everyone they know is dead and they can't go back to their prior life because it's been over for more than a thousand years would cause an unsustainable high number of suicides.   I have a hard time believing that this sustained cognitive dissonance plus forced participation in murder wouldn't also result in high rates of suicide or people isolating themselves as much as possible (which I'm assuming would also be considered a failed integration).

At least with the knowledge that you're trying to save humanity there might be a common thing to bind the community together.  Here, the only thing binding them together is forced murder and the collective agreement to pretend everything is fine and normal when it's clearly not.

I feel like your best bet would be to select for deep intellectual incuriosity, which doesn't bode well for keeping humanity going long term.  That said, I'm not sure the genetic diversity would be enough for that anyway.

And how does the economy work?  There's hotel, which I would think can only have guests that are new integrations, which won't have any money... although I thought there was another guest mentioned.   

I get that there are literally tons of food stored, but presumably you'd want the community to be self sustaining at some point but I don't think farmers are mentioned.   Who maintains the power for the town?  How is it maintained?  That takes specialized knowledge and some kind of industrial structure.  What happens when power lines are damaged?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Car accident, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, and Confinement

Minor: Death of parent and Infidelity

kellyisntcool's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Blood, and Confinement

Moderate: War, Torture, and Murder

Minor: Islamophobia

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Crouch is one of my favorite writers. Have loved every book I’ve read by him. This is the first one that scared me to the deepest parts of my brain on multiple levels. When it was made for TV, I was too scared to watch it, not knowing it was based on one of his books. Will certainly watch it now. And will immediately be reading book two!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Murder, War, Body horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Stalking, Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, and Police brutality

piscespnwmama's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: War

Minor: Infidelity

lukemorganartist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Torture, Gaslighting, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Minor: Car accident

mlthomas234's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Torture, Gaslighting, Death, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Drug use, Murder, and Car accident

adragoninspace's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Medical content, Confinement, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Car accident

chris_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Violence, Confinement, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Gore, Murder, Torture, Trafficking, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Blood, Xenophobia, War, Infidelity, and Car accident

markguitar's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.0

Very good book and I hope to get the sequel.  Crouch is an excellent writer.  At first, I thought I wouldn't bother going to the second book.  Fair warning...lots of very graphic violence, gore, torture.  If you don't have a stomach for that, I'd avoid it.  That almost made me want to stop.  However, the book leads to a payoff in the end...it does resolve, but it also makes me curious about what's coming next.  Not as good as Crouch's Incursion--which is outstanding--but still a good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Torture, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Violence, War, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity, and Vomit