Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

36 reviews

birdieex's review

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Mixed feelings on this book. I feel like this is going to be is difficult for me to rate. On one hand, I think I lacked the media literacy skills to understand a fair bit of the writing style, and ended up having to reread paragraphs. On the other hand, I can acknowledge it's a layered, psychologically complex story of obsession and violence.
 
I can see what the author was going for with the writing; something complicated and tangled and messy. However, there were many scenes I couldn't comprehend what was going on. I couldn't piece together where scenes started and ended or who was speaking when. I thought the

unreliable narrator

was done well. The ending threw me for a loop, honestly. That callback was so good.
 
There were a lot of times where characters knew something (or thought they knew something) I didn't and it was hard for me to connect to anyone. If the intention was to make us read between the lines, I had trouble doing that; and again this could come down to my own media illiteracy. I can't grasp the motive behind the killing. It was a thrill killing, but why? Why did they suddenly decide to do this?

I couldn't figure out if they even liked each other during some parts, which I get is the point. It's toxic and codependent, but I still found myself thinking "why the hell are you even together?" because I couldn't see anything that really brought them together.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Death, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Car accident, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Cursing, Police brutality, and Self harm

Minor: Animal death

The sexual assault is a brief detail; however it is described and could be triggering. Details under the spoiler.

Julian explains that his prep school roommate would climb on top of him (fully clothed) when he thought he was asleep. Julian said he allowed it because "he was a little good-looking and I felt sorry that he didn't have any other friends.

patriciapueyolopez's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, Violence, Emotional abuse, Death, Suicide, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, and Gore

Moderate: Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Classism

Minor: Stalking, Addiction, Forced institutionalization, and Classism

ford_defect's review

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This book felt like it was written by someone who probably used true crime Tumblr in the early to mid 2010s, jotted down an idea (or maybe started writing it) for one of their problematic OTPs, went to college and learned how to write, and then turned what was initially a fanfic into a literary thriller. As someone who was pretty active on Tumblr in the early to mid 2010s, I did enjoy reading this because of that familiar feeling it gave me.

Like a guy beating up another guy, but intimately??? Saying "I hate you so much" after having passionate sex????? I lived for that kind of thing.

Though, generally I'm more of a plot guy, and the plot isn't very structured (but it really doesn't have to be). This story wasn't boring as a whole, but the prose was dense and boring for me at times. I don't fault the author for it. I think it's that this type of book (character-led--and unlikable characters at that) isn't really my thing, but I have rated it higher than other books that weren't really my thing. And unlike other books that aren't my thing, I am considering getting a copy to re-read sometime in the far future.  

4/5 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, Violence, Suicide attempt, Blood, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Homophobia, Grief, Antisemitism, Body shaming, and Bullying

Minor: Classism and War

chuckyinspace's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Death, Suicide, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death, Car accident, and Chronic illness

Minor: Antisemitism and Homophobia

trulydevious's review

sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Homophobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Animal death

reallyrosalie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Grief, Antisemitism, Animal death, and Self harm

ashlikes's review against another edition

dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Grief, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, and Homophobia

Moderate: Blood, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Antisemitism, Sexual content, Suicide, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Bullying, Sexual violence, Animal death, Sexism, Vomit, and War

dixiecarroll's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This is stunning, but dense. It’s the secret history, but a little more violent and a lot more gay. I ate it up and it made me feel so many uncomfortable things… and made me question what we’re all capable of. Unreal. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Grief, Gore, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Suicide attempt

aidareads's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

this was an interesting read for me. i found the premise engaging and i admit i had high expectations because of leo's (https://www.youtube.com/@TheBookLeo) review, but i still didn't seem to enjoy it as much as she did.
see, i think my main "problem" with this book is that i really, really wanted to absolutely love it. i was expecting a dark academia type of story - and don't get me wrong, they got the dark part very well. it was the academia part that i believe i've been missing. 
also, while i do think julian and paul's toxic and obsessive relationship was quite well portrayed, i struggled to actually connect with them (and, by extension, with any character in the story). i did appreciate how they progressively get more and more unhinged, but they already started off as a bit insane. i didn't really empathize with neither of them, even if i did suffer for them when they did.
also, i don't know if paul is canonically neurodivergent, but he does exhibit MANY autistic traits, which i found curious. 
overall, i did like the book, but i didn't love it, and i also didn't feel like it was a solid 4 stars. i also checked the trigger warnings for it and was still unpleasantly surprised when i noticed how graphic and frequent self-harm is in the story because it wasn't listed when i checked the tags, so please do take care and check those before reading this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Homophobia, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Antisemitism, Blood, Murder, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, and Drug use

saramcaps's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Extremely dark and fits right into the “obsessive relationships that end in violence” genre. Deliberately pretentious and overly lyrical—think The Secret History. But, this time the narrator is the instigator, not just a passive accomplice.

The two main characters border on psychopathy depending on your belief in the unreliable narrator’s version of events.

Paul, to me, is certainly a psychopath. The way he sees Julian as calculating and cold, I actually think applies to him. Whereas the grace and sympathetic persona he sets upon himself applies more to Julian, who I do not think is a psychopath. It’s a very interesting mirroring delusion between the two of them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Murder, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Animal death

you are inside the mind of a psychopath who finds joy in violence