Reviews with content warning for Violence - Bent Heavens

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus

8 reviews

kiddocut's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.25

I feel like the main twist is obvious but there is more to it than a surface idea of said twist. It’s a good idea but falls flat in it’s ability to deliver. With a weak love triangle in the mix too-makes the lead and her friends kind of insufferable in a book that’s explicitly about the conflicts of POW and torture.

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trippyotter's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

OH. MY. The ending?! It'd make Stephen King proud.

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royalraspberry's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-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

Maybe I'm not the audience for this. But I don't want Saw but it's an Alien in my sci-fi. This isn't a horror, which is why I picked it up, and then combined with the absolutely unlikeable characters I just can't deal with it.

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kritika's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

Not a bad book but not at all for me! This book was not what I signed up for at all, and the ending seemed like it wanted to pile on traumatic thing on top of traumatic thing until it all seemed meaningless and needlessly dark for the sake of shock value. The whole point of the book is that humans are monsters and will use any excuse to justify their terrible actions, but in the end when someone finally tries to do something right, it backfires and causes more pain.

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artemishi's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

I started this book, forgetting how truly freaked out I can get about aliens, and concerned that it might be too scary for me to read (alone, at night). But thankfully, it took a turn rather quickly into psychological horror, which is more my jam.

The whole story was much deeper and more introspective than I expected, exploring the capacity for violence against the Other, the complex dynamics of friendship especially when wrapped in grief and isolation, the ripple effect each life has on the other, and ultimately, how well any of us knows other people.

One of the big moments was projected relatively early on, but even guessing it didn't lessen the impact for the MC, whose head you're in pretty quickly. Like many teens (especially teen girls), she's so up in her own head that she misses a lot of evidence of things in front of her (especially when it comes to subtle social dynamics) and is understandably defensive as a first reaction.

I loved and hated Doug, so much, in equal measure. In some ways, he's an incredibly thoughtful and considerate friend- more so than Liv deserves, to be honest. In others, he's so toxic and manipulative- and it's hard to feel like there's any real maliciousness in there, because he's basically an abandoned poor outcast of a kid. My heart was breaking for him the whole book even when he was squicking me out.

The book itself was very fast paced- the ending especially galloped but it worked well with the levels of tension in the story. Overall, if you're into psychological horror YA and like a twisty book, I recommend it.

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