Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Lakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone

14 reviews

inborinth's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

 ❝𝐘𝐨𝐮'𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭?❞

Pesadillas que traspasan la realidad, recuerdos de magia y familiaridad, asesinatos y mansiones, creencias y oscuridad. Violeta está rodeada de aquellos rituales. Convive con la única familia que le queda, aunque algo perverso los aceche. Una magia tan sólida como la mismísima sangre atrapa sus sueños más profundos, pero, ¿son realmente sueños o una trampa? Caer en terror es lo único que conocen, encerrados en un hogar agonizante, alguien logra intervenir todo el dolor que han sufrido. 

Lakesedge es un libro de culpa y perdón. De enfrentar verdades y recuerdos, miedos y criaturas horroríficas. Es una historia que reconoce la soledad, invertida en dos mundos tan catastróficamente parecidos. El sacrificio que los personajes deben enfrentar se torna aún más crudo, donde comienzan a hilarse la magia y el poder de algo mucho más temible que la verdad. Un ser que podría acabar con la luz del mundo, un ser que intercambia su oscuridad por lo que uno esté dispuesto a entregar. Pactos de sangre, podredumbre que acecha un hogar aniquilado de felicidad. Cada aspecto de esta historia es un rito de salvación. 

Este libro tiene una prosa bellísima, cálida y mundana. El estilo gótico se cierne en cada capítulo y va creciendo a medida que la historia avanza, crece como una raíz. Es difícil abarcar cada parte del libro, pero admito que hubo aspectos del mismo que no lograron convencerme como esperaba. El intercambio romántico de los personajes, a pesar de haberlo disfrutado, lo sentí hueco. Lo presencié como algo brusco, rápido y hasta un tanto vacío. Tienen sus momentos de unión inquebrantable, pero tengo mis dudas al respecto. Tendré que enfrentar su continuación para formar una opinión más sólida en cuanto a su romance. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

trippalli's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

1.0

First positively the author has a beautiful way of describing rooms, places, clothes, details with adjectives and so the world building is effective and stunning.  Unfortunately that's about where it ends. The last survivor/resurrected of the drown family is constantly cutting themselves to do blood magic. The premise is they are trying to undo the corruption on the land caused by the tragedies and causing the tragedies  This corruption had killed all the plants and blackened the water of the lake.
The other characters introduced who are trying to help with their magic are failing and also start self cutting to pull power which seems both dark, repeatative and unhelpful. The narrator makes a deal with the dark underlord and gives up her family... The love triangle between the undrowned traffic love survivor and the dark underlord both seem like abusive relationships full of gaslighting, darn deals and unfortunately violent power dynamics.. Giving up positive things in their lives to try to save this cursed land. 

It all became redundant, dark and pointless. There's really no plot, the relationships aren't founded in love but more power dynamics, pity, and tragedy.  I skimmed through entire book speed reading after the first half trying to see if it would evolve and a plot would evolve. Nothing evolved.

Sadly I can't recommend this, as despite the promising descriptive language and world building, the characters relationships are very triggering for me as an abuse survivor, and the self cutting is horrific, knowing people who suffered with cutting in real life this is not ok to weave into a young adult book as a source of magic. It's not cutting is just tragic self harm.



Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jwhitlow91's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

maevreads52's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

elwan_enchanted's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kdez's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

r_a_bell's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This book read like a 2012 self-insert watt pad fanfic, especially in the beginning. There’s a lot of build-up with no delivery and it seems like instead of letting the story speak for itself, the author instead just tells you how you should feel about the story. 

At the beginning, the main character refer to the (initial) antagonist as “the monster” constantly. After hearing a single rumor about him, being told that he’s called a monster and having like 2 interactions with him. It’s like it was just easier to have the main character keep calling him a monster instead of actually illustrating it and leading you to that conclusion yourself. The entire book just felt like it was trying to hard to be dark and scary, without actually delivering. 

My biggest complaint, though, is the descriptions throughout do not line up. When I read, I have a movie that plays in my head of what’s going on in the book. And the way actions were described, it completely took me out of the story almost constantly! For example, if it describes two characters in the same room, at first it will describe them as being on opposite side of the room, and then 2 seconds later it’ll be saying that character A grabbed Character B’s hand. When did they cross the room?? Did I miss something or do they just have super long arms?? 

My final note:
there’s supposed to be  a love triangle in this?? The third person in the supposed love triangle is only actually in a scene maybe 3 times. And the way it’s described it felt my creepy and weird than anything. Reading it, I kept thinking to myself “does the author mean for it to sound like the main character is kind of into him??”
Nothing about it seemed intentional.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

haley49's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I loved the atmosphere and characters. They all felt sympathetic and realistic, especially when making frustrating decisions! I really liked the main couple and enjoyed their journey together. They had a beauty and the beast feel that was well-done. That said, this book had parts where I felt like I was missing something and there were a few moments where J was confused. I also wish the secondary characters, particularly Violeta’s brother got more time to shine. Overall, a great read with some surprisingly heart-tugging moments that left me emotional on these characters (Leta and Rowan’s) behalfs.
I hated Leta’s sacrifice though! I found myself wishing she died rather than give up her memories! That hurt😭😭

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

natreviews's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

So I got this book from Owlcrate and I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. The story is nice and simple, but is also dark. It's a mix of a couple of different fairy tales (
Beauty and the Beast
and
The Myth of Hades and Persephone
were the ones I picked up on), and twists it with it's own story. 
The main weaknesses in this book is the time jumping can be a bit confusing (not the worst I've read, but a lot of character feeling changes happen in those time jumps) and the enemies to lovers trope isn't great. After reading books like Queen Takes Rose and Survival Instincts, I'm worried that the straights aren't getting the same level of quality with this trope. It's mainly I hate him, but he's hot so might as well rather than anything being developed over time. 

I saw that this is planned to be a series, so I might just have to pick up the next book whenever it comes out. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

rattletheshelves's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
I loved it! Lakesedge is a dark fantasy full of monsters and shadows and alchemy. Right up my alley. 

The writing is lush and phenomenal - the spooky manor, the dark lake, the shadows that grab you, the alchemy, the monsters, the deities... All of it was amazingly brought to life. 

Even though the main romance is m/f, it's a queer-normative world and the MC is demi! I especially loved the aro-positivity and how her friend said that not everyone wants romance - it's so rare to see aro-positivity!

It's a perfect autumn read and you should definitely give it a go this spooky season.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings