Reviews tagging 'Torture'

There Are No Saints by Sophie Lark

63 reviews

katcrowe69's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Death, Grief, Torture, Murder, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Kidnapping

urfavvdumbass_16's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

 " Evil men always want to justify what they do. "

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Stalking, Kidnapping, Torture, and Blood

hapalyn's review against another edition

dark tense 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

3.75

The book would've been a lot more riveting if the conflict and main point of plot wasn't so simple and somewhat bland. It definitely feels a lot more like a character study of a serial killer and his muse (much like "You", but without the intellectual charm). I found aspects to be really enjoyable and then found myself like "WTF did I just read", but not in a great way? I think the backstory of the FMC was a lot to unwind, and I enjoyed seeing her overcome some of it, but in the sexual manner that she did made some of it feel incredibly icky to me sometimes. I wish there had been more explanation of the MMC's nature than we were given. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Cursing, Torture, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Rape

whatrobynsreading's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Self harm, and Murder

mythen_metz's review against another edition

Too dark for me!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Kidnapping, Torture, and Blood

angellike333's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Torture, Self harm, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Murder, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Stalking, Violence, Death, Medical content, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Alcoholism, and Bullying

cash_mama's review against another edition

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? Yes

2.5

I wanted to like this book. Cole was supposed to be complicated but turned out so 1 dimensional. Mara was just kind of dumb through the whole thing. The book started great with Mara being so strong but the more she was built, the less interesting she got. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Classism, Kidnapping, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Alcohol, Physical abuse, and Mental illness

erinlaura's review against another edition

3.75

3.75⭐️ 

Warning, a couple spoilers lie ahead, but honestly, nothing much beyond what would have been listed in a list of trigger warnings if this book, y’know, had one. 

I have extremely mixed feelings about this book. I’ve read a few dark romances before that have been really solid, where usually one or both main characters do or have done bad things for some reason that’s explainable or justifiable, especially in the context of fiction. This is not one of those books. The MMC is a serial killer because he - get this - likes killing people, and the FMC is into him despite him leaving her for dead in the woods because she had ✨childhood trauma✨. No, seriously. This guy seems to be actively aware that he’s a bad person and doesn’t care for the wellbeing of others. He repeatedly reminds us that he does only things that bring him pleasure, and will literally do whatever he feels like doing. 

Despite all this I found myself morbidly curious about the plot and what was going to happen next. I was fascinated, and couldn’t bring myself to look away, even though the MMC, his “rival”, and the main “relationship” were seriously disturbing. I was definitely entertained in more of a thriller/horror kind of way than a romance. 

Lastly, for someone who seems so traumatized by her (objectively terrible) childhood, she really seems to bounce back fast from all the terrible things that happen to her throughout the course of this book. 

Also, PSA for any of you KU girlies, the cover with the snakes is the only one I had ever seen, and the one that's listed on KU, but when I used the very convenient "mark as currently reading" kindle feature, it set my goodreads edition to the "half-naked couple clinging to one another" cover

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Stalking, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Blood, Gore, Confinement, and Body horror

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Murder, Emotional abuse, Death, Bullying, Body shaming, and Self harm

The FMC gets kidnapped by the MMC's rival, is tortured by him, and left to die in the woods so that the MMC will find her and be tempted to kill her. Instead he leaves her for dead. It's super graphic, and then she just breezes past it. So, PSA

_serena_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

I think this is the first "dark romance" type book that I've enjoyed.

I liked the artistic description in this book - the intensity of Mara working on her pieces. I loved her strong will. I can't stand when the FMC finally gets the man and instantly becomes a watered down version of herself. I don't think this happened to Mara at all. I think she really stepped into herself as the story progressed. She didn't feel weaker at the end.

The serial killer aspect was cool and fun to work with. I would like to know more about Cole and Shaw's kills. I want their methodology. I know Cole must be cold and calculating, insane attention to detail. I want to know his process, his justification. 

I'm interested to see where this story goes in the second one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Self harm, Stalking, Blood, Death, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Suicide, and Torture

nickbreezyreads_'s review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Murder, Stalking, Torture, Violence, and Cursing