Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Kill Switch by Penelope Douglas

26 reviews

sara_mb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

It’s controversial with all the topics it brings up but very Intense and intriguing. The jumps in time make it confusing at first but it’s great to see with time all the sides of the story. Very interesting to read a pov of a blind character. I wasn’t sure how it would end or make sense but it was good 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Self harm, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Murder, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Murder, Rape, and Toxic friendship

chels984's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Drug abuse, Incest, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Murder, Self harm, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Police brutality, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Car accident, Medical trauma, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, and Adult/minor relationship

nineinchnails's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

this book was definitely too long imo. i loved damon and winter's characters and i think they were well written but a lot of the content felt like filler to me (especially with the flashbacks they felt a little repetitive and redundant) so it felt like a drag getting through the middle of the book. the last chunk definitely kept my attention well but i don't know if it's enough for me to rate the book higher,  since the book is so SO long. i don't think i would've minded the length much if there was more development in the present and i think the constant flashbacks worked against this story since i felt like i never got a chance to root for their relationship outside of their flashbacks. when i finished the book, i wasn't really sure why they liked each other (enough to warrant this being a romance novel) during the time the book was actually set but i found their individual characters lovable and interesting enough to root for them anyway, so i'd say it was a success overall!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Rape

Moderate: Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Bullying, Car accident, Ableism, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, and Self harm

Minor: Pregnancy, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

jadyn_renee62's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

this was a great book and perfect for the series summary of this book is below which spoils the book but this is only for people who forget what happens and want to continue the series BE AWARE

at the end damon and winter are together and damon’s kills his dad but all his money goes to his sister banks and damon has no money so he starts architecture, and he always doesn’t get arrested because the cops have someone protect him because ppl hated his dad also damon regrets everything he did and his mom touched him as a kid but his dad revels that it wasn’t his mom but a hooker and his real mom is rikas mom so they’re sibling and winters dad is still hiding and will is struggling a lot with drugs and drinking and damon is very protective of him cuz they had a very special connection

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Torture, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Suicide, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Child abuse, Car accident, Alcohol, Ableism, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Blood, Drug use, Alcohol, Bullying, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Gun violence, and Murder

booklloveer101's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Murder, Addiction, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexual assault

emilynied'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

1.5

I'm sorry, I just don't get this book and it's MMC. Winter was the best part of this for me, so I'll start with her. I really loved the blindness representation and I think the author did a good job of making the story from her narrative realistic and still interesting. She isn't diminished as a role in the story because of her lack of vision and she was still capable of being part of the action and having an entire character arc revolve around her. I loved the descriptions of her dancing and feeling the music and sounds around her and I can't fault her for bringing a literal sociopath to his knees :)

I understand why readers enjoy dark romance and fictional romance so much - it's because it's not real. If it was real, we would probably all be questioning our sanity. I usually don't mind books like these, but I don't get the hype around Damon Torrance, I really don't. His background is dark and the things that he went through are horrible - it explains why he's so messed up in the brain. BUT, I don't think it justified most of the things that he did in the past and present timelines of this book. He tries to kill his best friends in the first book, in the second book he terrorizes all of them and now he's just forgiven. There are, of course, lingering effects and we do see that in this book, but I don't think it's enough. We start the story super abruptly with him getting control of Winter, her sister and her mother just out of no where in his quest to force Winter to be with him and I just think that's gross. He puts her in these weird situations and in my mind, controls her (not letting her leave the house, having security follow her around...). I was so turned off by the first part of this book because of that. I just couldn't fathom how we could go from this to a potential love story. 

But, it did happen. I will say, I was kind of convinced towards the end of the book because he felt like a different character and everyone just *forgot* about all the shit he did. The character development just wasn't there for me to explain the switch up. Also, I feel like there was so much of Damon in Kai/Banks' book, but none of them are super prevalent in this book - I would have loved to see more of the present dynamic between him and Banks after it's revealed that they're siblings but that was definitely lacking here. 

As far as the storytelling techniques, I think I'm getting a little tired of this series' flashbacks. They are about 50% of the book and particularly in this story, reading the past chapters was so exhausting because they just felt like fillers? I don't know exactly how to explain it but it feels like the present narrative is just waiting for the big reveals in the past, and until that happens, there's a lull in the story which got pretty dull. The present chapters relied too much on the past chapters in my opinion, which also contributed to the eh reading experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Death, and Sexual harassment

ale9417's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Mental illness, Grief, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Child abuse, Bullying, Blood, and Adult/minor relationship

meghanperkins's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Murder, Rape, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Pedophilia, and Car accident

sienasummerrreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Another great book in the series. I found this way more dark and graphic. This follows Damon and Winter. Damon has been through so much and I was so angry with the graphic scenes we got and how he was treated by the people who are ment to love and care for him. He is a tough MC but broken. Winter is innocent and was shocked when I found out the condition she had. I really wasn’t expecting it at all. 

I loved when Damon opened up to Winter and let her in. Damon protecting her from a young age and caring for her I enjoyed the jump back in time to see them moments.

🔹 Dark Romance 

🔹 Graphic Scenes 

🔹 Hate To Love 

🔹 Tormented MMC

🔹 Innocent FMC

🔹 Mysterious Suspenseful Plot

🔹 Spicy 

This is for you! 

Genre: Dark Romance 18+

APK: Audiobook Scribd 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Check Triggers ⚠️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Medical content, Emotional abuse, and Self harm

theteamsreader's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.5

The best in the series.  A dark, sexy romance that actually IS dark and sexy.  Following the third horseman Damon Torrance as he begins to tear down Winter Ashby's life and family after the incident so many years ago, a surprising backstory and dive into these characters' minds reveals that what's on the surface is not as it seems.  Recommend to anyone with a dark and spicy read in mind with a surprisingly excellent plot, a larger found family than once realised before, and even further surprise in diversity, as to Winter's  character not being limited to her blind disability.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Violence, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Self harm

Minor: Car accident