Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

53 reviews

sarawildoosen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Kidnapping, Child death, Death, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, and Violence

pumpkinmasterug's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Not the best novel I’ve read, but definitely not the worst. It presents grief through a range of perspectives and is definitely dark and uncomfortable at several points. I enjoyed majority of the book, however

the possession scene spoiled the tone of it all for me, especially since the argument for Susie sleeping with her crush instead of tracking down her killer is her reclaiming what was taken from her during her murder, but after she hopes her father dies to be in heaven with her TWICE she let’s her family suffer in grief when she could’ve caught her killer or unveiled the location of her body and helped them. Of course that would’ve been very cliche so I understand why Seabold avoided this, but it just made Susie come across very selfish and quite unlikeable.

It’s a bit corny in some places and I don’t think the writing style will suit everyone, and some of the characters are so flat and predictable they read more like AI trying to blend in than actual human beings, but I honestly didn’t mind that too much in this case. Overall though, it’s a good read with a hopeful message and I did enjoy it for the most part.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Body horror, Gore, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Infidelity, Abandonment, and Cursing

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Mental illness, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Death of parent

ltux's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Rape, Sexual violence, Grief, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, Blood, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

elektra_xo's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? No

5.0

Couldn't put it down!!! Very emotional and dark. Love that it has a 'true crime feel' to it. I could read this over and over 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Gore, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Stalking, Sexual violence, Child death, Violence, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Kidnapping, and Rape

serein42's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment and Violence

Minor: Animal death

greenan26's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Child death, Murder, and Death

emilyhooie22's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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

5.0

"These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections— sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent— that happened after I was gone."

Up until this month (November 2023), I never knew The Lovely Bones movie was made from a book. I immediately knew I needed to read it. There was definitely more to the story. So much depth, sadness, answers, happiness, and the tragedy before, during, and aftermath of Susie's murder. Every new detail was heartbreaking. I couldn't stop reading. 

I'm so glad I read this book. What a beautiful outlook on life and death, and what we leave behind and where we go when we leave this world. 🥺

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, and Violence

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

There is an explicit SA scene of the child main character described in more detail than the murder you are warned of in the blurb. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Child abuse

Moderate: Murder

eelizard's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Confinement, Death, Sexual violence, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Stalking

kly227's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

This book was extremely fascinating in the beginning. The premise is promising but it does not follow all the way through. 
I found myself emotional many times during this book. It put me in a dark headspace going to bed each night, which was hard. I felt connected to the characters because the family set up is exactly like mine as a child- and I would have been Susie. I found myself empathizing so much for Susie and her family in the first half; I found this book to be a very real and very difficult demonstration of grief.
On the negative side… the characters were extremely flat and hardly had any purpose for the story. The development of the plot was strange- as I kept hoping it would go a certain way or that there was a reason I was learning something specific about a character, and it never came back. This was frustrating and made a lot of the random paragraphs of detail throughout the book literally pointless. 

The end of this book was really rocky. There was a paranormal, tricky sex scene that was basically sexual assault (but is glorified to be this amazing, transcendent experience between a 14 y/o and a 20 y/o) that made me extremely uncomfortable. It did not align with the rest of the story and it ruined some characters for me. Loose ends with characters were never tied up or dealt with in any shape or form. Characters were never held accountable for their mistakes and nothing was ever reprimanded.
Finally, maybe this is a personal thing, but I was not happy that the lovely bones were never found. That was my desire the entire time, and maybe it’s more realistic that we lose the body of the person forever but darn it! There are still so many questions. 

Going to watch the very low-rated movie now, wish me luck!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Murder, Blood, Grief, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcohol, Child death, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Violence