Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Pines by Blake Crouch

23 reviews

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

bunky_jones's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? N/A

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gaslighting

Moderate: Kidnapping and Murder

vexatiousbird's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

2.0

The good: It’s exciting. I was really curious to see where it all led. It’s fast paced and has plenty of twists. The concept was interesting.

The bad: There is not a single interesting character to be found here - all flat plot devices with no depth. The protagonist is not likable but he’s not an antihero, he’s just entitled and oblivious, eg., getting furious at the front desk for not giving him a hotel room when he has no way to pay for it. There are a lot of cheap tricks to keep the excitement going, and a lot of it doesn’t even make sense in the broader plot. There is some excessive violence which seems unnecessary/nonsensical when we ultimately see the full picture. Honestly a lot of things make less sense after the big reveal, not more sense.

The “good guys” can’t think of any way to prevent people from leaving town and force them to buy into paradise other than to enlist the entire town to catch them and literally torture them to death in a macabre carnival atmosphere so other people are too scared to try? When their ultimate goal is preserving life? What?

I dropped another of this author’s books partway through, and I thought it was just that specific plot and those characters, but it’s clear now that the problem is the author. I won’t be reading anything more by him, and now that the big mystery in this book is solved, I have no interest in continuing the series either. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Murder, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Medical trauma

tiareads's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Gore

sjlarson's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Murder

bbducki's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Car accident, Medical trauma, Murder, Infidelity, Gore, and Torture

saltycoffee's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Police brutality, Car accident, Confinement, Violence, Body horror, Medical trauma, and Kidnapping

rojo25's review

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Forced institutionalization

midwichtriffid's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Body horror, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Kidnapping, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and War

hobbithopeful's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

From the very first page I was sucked right in, and I felt as scared and helpless as poor secret agent Ethan Burke. We follow our lost main character as he awakens in town with absolutely no idea where he is, and with only vague recollections of his current situation. Matters quickly go from bad to worse as he realizes he has no wallet, no phone, and the sheriff of the town is less then helpful. Burke has to discover what is going on, and try to retain his sanity in a place where everyone is starting to think he is crazy. 
Out of every monster, murderer, and creepy crawly mystery thriller I have ever read, there is something about the perfect town where everyone seems and acts happy, but there is a dark undercurrent that always unnerves me more then anything else. *shudders* Give me a vampire or a serial killer any day of the week and I will be find reading it, but the town of Wayward Pines had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end and my heart racing!
There isn't much I can say about this book without spoilers but let me just say, never in a million years would I have guessed the insidious truth about the seemingly sleepy town of Wayward Pines, and I ran  to the library website to put the next book in the trilogy on hold!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Kidnapping, Medical content, Torture, Drug use, Vomit, Blood, Murder, War, Physical abuse, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, and Medical trauma