Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Diviners, by Libba Bray

8 reviews

trippalli's review

dark funny lighthearted mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

A funny adventurous book about a murderous ghost set in a roaring 20s plus occult and individuals with specific powers, like seeing memories in touching an object or seeing glimpses of the future, becoming unseen temporarily... But I never thought I'd let l laugh so much while a serial killer is trying to be stopped. I loved all the very diverse cast and I wanted them to all be safe! They are so quirky, using their ability to pick pockets or make party games and sprinkled constantly with the 20s slang of the lead character, a girl who wants to party and turns detective and PR for her academic uncle's museum of the occult she is so sassy, spontaneous and friendly... All the characters are very vivid and unique and the world is fabulous. I have the first 4 books and am eager to read the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Murder, Physical abuse, Stalking, Torture, Abandonment, Animal death, Death, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/injury detail, Violence, Animal cruelty, Racism, Child death, Confinement, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Ableism and War

cdpow's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Child death and Domestic abuse

Minor: Racism

davidrb's review

adventurous dark funny slow-paced

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

3.0

Just Okay. I think I'm just never gonna get into a YA fantasy, but the setting and lore both appealed to me! I'll probably continue the series, seeing as some characters (namely Memphis, Henry, and Sam!?) didn't have much of a presence in the story when it came to the main plot. (Poor Mabesie too!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and War

This book is much more graphic than I was expecting, especially when it comes to the child death, sexual and domestic abuse, and animal death. Watch out!

er1nmoore's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.5

TO BE WRITTEN

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

katherinek's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

The first half was good, but a bit slow. The second half was excellent. It wasn’t too predictable and kept me wondering what could happen next. I wanted more of Sam.

Spoiler

Jericho being a robot was kind of random?? It just didn’t really fit the vibe of the book in my opinion. Jericho and Evie as a couple was also kind of weird but I didn’t hate it.

Mabel reminds me of Penny from Hairspray. I could totally see this book as a TV series!! Bray is a great writer!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Suicide, Rape, and Medical content

Minor: Gun violence, Vomit, Racism, and Grief

genny's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

The audiobook is fantastic, one of the best I've ever listened to. I still cannot believe there's only one narrator - January LaVoy is so skilled that it sounds like you're listening to a full cast! If you like audio at all and are interested in this story, do yourself a favor and go with the audiobook. Anyway, this was so much fun! I felt immersed in the 1920's setting and loved the main cast, though we didn't see enough of Mabel or Henry (fingers crossed for character development in the next books). Evie is a darling protagonist, and I find her blossoming relationship with

Spoiler

Jericho

sweet, though it's pretty obvious we'll be getting a

Spoiler

love triangle with Sam, which I'm not mad about as he and Evie are adorable together

. The "mystery" was fine, just the right amount of spookiness, though I admit I cared less about it than getting to know the characters. Even side characters appear to harbor secrets of their own; I look forward to seeing how they're all connected as the series progresses.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Racism, and Suicide

Moderate: Abortion, Misogyny, and Sexual violence

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

mishi543's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racism, and Torture

Minor: Abortion, Alcoholism, and Rape

kelly_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

This is the first book (which I listened to as an audiobook from borrowbox) in what I believe is a series of 4. Its main character is a 17 year old girl called Evie (she calls herself a flapper) who has visions. It’s set in the 1920s and written in third person.

Evie, her uncle, and a couple of friends need to research some creepy cult-like murders with supernatural elements to help stop a serial killer.

The time period it’s set in is very apparent, with the vocabulary, attitudes, clothing described etc. Initially it was great but it quickly got annoying as I did find that this was overdone with Evie particularly, with excessive slang terms and the suffix “ski” with random words (“positiv-a-lutely” and “you bet-ski”). 

I enjoyed that there were hints towards a group of people with special abilities, and lots of info to gather around the location and serial killer, but the book did jump around to different POVs too much for my taste.

This book came across like an extended ghost story with the Ouija board leading to a killer ghost rampage and nightmares etc. What he was doing would certainly have been scary and disturbing but someone calling themselves “naughty John” constantly and singing a children’s song all the time just got really silly. It was a bit like Jeepers Creepers, without the jump moments.

Overall, I liked the idea but I didn’t personally connect to the any of the main characters so it’s clearly not for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Child death, and Rape