Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North

31 reviews

nightowlbooksociety's review against another edition

4.5

dark mysterious tense fast-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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Stalking, Murder, Abandonment

Minor: Addiction

boiler_bookworm's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder

efulton's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Kidnapping, Murder

Minor: Vomit

knollelisa's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Thoroughly enjoyed it. Horrendously mad that I wasn't able to figure out the killer from the summary...it was RIGHT THERE

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal cruelty

the_autumn_reader's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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This one was good! The build up of dread made this story even more compelling! I do feel like it dragged on towards the end and was a little confusing at times.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Kidnapping, Murder

juliannecridlin's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Murder

magb1023's review against another edition

3.0

dark tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Torture, Murder

smg67's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Alex North is a master of suspense wit twists and turns that you never see coming. This is a tale of the guilt and shame experienced by those who failed to help a little boy in the clutches of a monster on a sunny afternoon in a service station.  North takes you on a journey that you cannot wait to finish just to know the truth. Alex North gets better and better! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Mental illness, Kidnapping, Murder

Minor: Drug use, Grief

dblue236's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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My gut instinct was to rate this two stars, but that seemed a bit low considering I did like the concept. The execution, not so much. I feel like that's always the case with this author's books for me, so I can't say I was all that disappointed, but I do still struggle to grasp all the hype every time he releases a book. The general plot behind this was a great idea, but the story was so convoluted and the characters were so one-dimensional that I struggled to keep track of who they all were and how they related to the story. Overall this wasn't the worst thing I've ever read by any means, and it was probably the most impressed I've been with one of North's books so far, but I was still pretty underwhelmed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Blood, Abandonment

shawnachristine's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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  was saying if this book wasn't good from BOTM I was going to be quitting it, but it really delivered. I liked the way that it went between the present, the near past and then the past-past, bringing together Dan's story, John's story and James' story. Telling us just what we needed to know but not giving it all away by telling us TOO much in the past bits, cutting off just as Dan was learning new things so that we were going through it with Dan. I will say this is the third book I've read this year where a father son relationship tries to bond over boxing/hitting a boxing bag. What's up with that? Is this a thing men really do with each other? It's weird. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder

Minor: Abandonment

this is about a serial kidnapper/murderer so read with that in mind