Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

10 reviews

seasonedreadings's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Body horror, Animal death, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death

sapphicshark's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Animal death, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual assault and Violence

Minor: Vomit, War, and Torture

ehmannky's review

dark emotional sad 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

4.0

A dark fairy tale-esque novella following a woman being ordered by a tyrant to retrieve his children from a magical and horrific forest, with the penalty of her failure being he'll massacre her entire village. It took me a second to get into it, but by the end I was tearing through the pages to get to the end. I think Mohamed touches on a few really interesting themes (what responsibility for future horrors come from protecting the children of your oppressors and the harm of repressing our trauma and ignoring it does to our selves and others). The ending is a massive bummer, with only the slightest glimmer of hope and felt a little abrupt to me. I honestly felt this could work as a prologue to a much longer and involved story, because I'd love to see the story and the themes expounded on in future works. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Gore, Grief, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death, Child death, and Death of parent

Minor: Rape, War, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Torture

gabography's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

a very unique and quick dark fantasy adventure that i consumed in two sittings. there's a dreamlike fairytale/fable vibe to the story that i found enjoyable. the ending was left open in a way that makes me wonder if this is a world the author may return to, and i hope that's the case. the amount of worldbuilding for only such a short book would be a crime

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death, War, Violence, Kidnapping, and Grief

bloodyknight15's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Sexual assault, Gore, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, and Violence

Minor: Vomit, War, and Suicidal thoughts

maryellen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, War, Violence, Blood, Child death, and Grief

jammison's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, and Sexual assault

Minor: Medical content

metaphorsandmisc's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, War, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, and Violence

Minor: Pedophilia and Torture

akapaldo's review

adventurous dark 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Violence

Moderate: War, Death of parent, and Child death

Minor: Sexual assault and Child abuse

laurareads87's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Butcher of the Forest reads like a fairytale of a particular sort: atmospheric, violent, and unsettling. I like the balance Mohamed has struck here between providing enough detail to follow along while leaving much of the mysterious setting unknown and unexplained. Her writing is wonderfully descriptive. 

I do have a significant criticism though, which I’m leaving behind spoiler tags as it relates to the ending. I really, really do not appreciate when

a character’s history of having survived childhood sexual abuse & assault is used as a “big reveal” or a twist or whatever happened here. It doesn’t feel even remotely survivor-centric or trauma informed.

As a reader, I felt let down by this, and cannot recommend this beautifully written novella on this basis. 

Content warnings: violence, blood, body horror, gore, sexual abuse of a child (mentioned, doesn't occur on-page) 

Thank you to Tor Publishing & NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Child abuse