Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Direwood by Catherine Yu

2 reviews

gracecrandall's review against another edition

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dark hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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accidentallyinspace's review

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

1.25

Of all the YA books I have read, this is the YA-ist. A bland, insipid main character who wrings her hands over every line of dialogue and flip flops / forgets important information when convenient. A plot that lurches forward on convenience and not anything resembling logic or useful characters. Time seems to pass in this novel at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light, as the main characters only have roughly 30 minutes of daylight with which to do anything in before they just give up for the day and let the vampires toy with them some more that night. 

The book seems like it wants to say something about upper class white suburbia and its horrible xenophobia, which seemed like it was going to be profound at the beginning, and ends up kinda trailing off without saying anything, with the end resolution being the main character's dad... Stop mowing the lawn as much? Hang out with her more? 

There are a few good bits, some truly gnarly descriptions of gothic or body horror, and decent descriptions, but it's not enough really. 

Likely I am just old and crotetchy by now and the YA section is not written with me in mind.
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