Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Poisoner by I.V. Ophelia

15 reviews

novellearts's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

No star rating yet as I'm not sure how I feel about this one at the moment. I picked this book up for the beautiful cover and because I thought it was a horror book. I was very surprised once I started getting into it and finding out that it was more vampiric dark romance.

That being said, I liked Alina a lot as a character, I liked Silas a lot less. There were some really hot scenes and there were some that I didn't care for. I will say that I personally hate when books include any version of knotting. I find the concept repulsive and invasive especially as the books that include knotting usually love to use it as a "surprise." 

• “I’m sorry,” he whispered, kissing the skin on my shoulder and up to my neck, his fingers tangling in my hair and keeping me in place, pushing his hips firmly into mine.   “You said you wouldn’t,” I breathed.  “I lied,” he said lowly.   “Why?”  “Because you are mine.”
• Quote of Silas and Alina's conversation after he knotted her, saying that he wouldn't and that he "doesn't do that to humans."

I did mostly enjoy the banter in this book, but I wish that it centered more around Alina's job and her actually poisoning men.

Overall, I think I liked this until around chapters 46 and on. Up until this point, there were definitely a lot of instances of abuse, stalking, and toxicity but (and I know this sounds crazy) it was a tolerable level. Both characters mostly reciprocated the same energy to each other and it wasn't completed unwanted. Chapters 47 and on took a turn. Chapters 48 and 50 were not my cup of tea.

The rape scene with Viktor in Chapter 48 really pissed me off, especially with how he "revealed" what he did to Silas. Then in Chapter 50 with Viktor and Silas both feeding from Alina.

The Poisoner story felt incredibly reminiscent of Haunting Adeline to me. It just felt like a vampire version. Though I will say, I liked this story more than Haunting Adeline and I liked the characters much more. I also kept finding myself wishing that Alina would just end up with Phoebe, because let's be honest, that would've been much better than Silas or Viktor.

The ending of this was unsatisfying to me as well. It was so rushed and incredibly open-ended. We didn't learn as readers how

Alina and Phoebe made it out or what happened to anyone in the Nest.

I understand that this is book 1 and that it'll most definitely be covered in book 2, but I personally would've liked a lot less ambiguity here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cannibalism

dezzella's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.5

1.5 Stars

I think this book had a cool concept - a woman killing vampires via poison. However this did not hit very high for me. There are lots of dark things in this book (stalking, death, poisoning, SA, etc.) so I would suggest looking up the warnings before continuing to read this book.

My biggest gripe about this book is that it feels to vague the entire book. It doesn't feel like characters, emotions, setting, or plot are described fully, instead things are left vague and the reader has to infer. Because of this, I ended up not caring for any of the characters or situations. Also, while many people consider this a dark romance I would say that there is very little actual romance. There is spice, yes, but majority of the book is focusing on the characters stalking/being stalked and doing some academic studies. I feel like some of the plot points came out of nowhere, and I wasn't sure whether I had read it wrong or if it just wasn't hinted at earlier. While I do enjoy dark romance, there were also a couple scenes after the halfway point that gave me an ick/did not sit well with me (I'll avoid mentioning for spoilers).

I liked the first couple of chapters but after the halfway point I kept reading only to see if things eventually tied together or started to make sense. To me it did not, and left me disappointed by the end.

Overall, concept was cool but I think the execution was too vague and the characters were not built up enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Stalking, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Violence, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

smcrain's review

dark mysterious slow-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Rape, Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Stalking, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Confinement, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Kidnapping

This book is full of dark elements that might be off-putting to people. People into a bit of horror, gore, blood and creatures might enjoy it though. I'm one of those people. I enjoyed a lot of it, but there was something there that wasn't clicking as well as I hoped. I really liked the individual parts, STEM women in Victorian society, heck yeah. A murderous waltz between two dark characters, I'm there. I really loved Silas and

all stuff revealed around him, his anatomy and the type of creatures they turn out to be

and the writing is fine. I sat trying to think about what it was, I think there's something about the fmc's sort of cold aloofness that doesn't resonate with the type emotional reader I am, and I feel like that was some kind of barrier for me to relate with characters and their choices. That being said I think it goes with that gothic Victorian era. I also didn't know it wasn't fully ended, would be excited to see what might happen in book 2, also not sure how many planned books there are for this series.

regent_ace's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

isabelleroyall's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

emmydoil's review

dark emotional mysterious fast-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

denacolada's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

dragonxbabe's review

dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

maravchristine's review

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? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Death of parent, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

ewilkins's review

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

3.0

Such a great style of writing. Spicy. Dark. I loved the world she created and the new monster lore this book had. I was all in until the last 50 pages. 

**spoiler** 
*spoiler* 
I absolutely hated the raping that happened at the end. Silas allowing... and then taking part in her abuse, after knowing what she'd gone through was so out of Character it made me have go reread the section again. Disappointing that our badass avenger was raped multiple times, and for what? Nothing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail