Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Terror by Dan Simmons

8 reviews

anjalirenee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

slow paced is an understatement please heed my warning. the pace picks up mmmmm around page 350 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). pretty good although TONS of unnecessary detail about the minutae of ice formations, ship layouts, and wayfinding. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Blood, Death, Kidnapping, Medical content, Racism, Suicide, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Animal death

Moderate: Cannibalism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, and Sexual content

Minor: Pedophilia and Pregnancy

amy14's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcoholism, Sexism, Classism, Addiction, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Racism, and Vomit

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

There are some great scares here, and some really well done character moments. Overall though, this book is too long (so many things are repeated unnecessarily), every woman is written really badly (but hey, at least

the author makes it clear that Big Tits survived!

) and the ending was terrible. I don't regret reading it but it's hard to recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Colonisation, Torture, Gore, Toxic relationship, Classism, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

Minor: Abandonment, Excrement, Incest, Pregnancy, and Vomit

black_october's review

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

What a horrifying take on one of the most chilling and mysterious doomed voyages in history.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Emotional abuse, Death, Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Sexual content, Sexism, Mental illness, Infidelity, Gore, Cursing, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Addiction, Body horror, Blood, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Violence, Cannibalism, Torture, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racism, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, Homophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

cbug412's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is off the chain. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Cultural appropriation, Excrement, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Classism, Genocide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Cursing, Gore, Misogyny, Colonisation, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, and Religious bigotry

quillsand's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

as per the rules of the Kayleigh Rating System this book would usually get 5 stars for the intensity of emotion it made me feel but i felt ick giving it 5 stars because i think using Inuit lore as the basis for horror is a bittt problematic coming from a white dude and also whilst i acknowledge the huge amount of research done into Inuit cultures smth about the ending just doesn't Sit Right 

that said the other 95% of the book was disturbing as all hell and bleak as fuck. but like, in a good way. i read this whilst at a festival and i kept returning to my tent to read instead of watching  acts. the vivid descriptions of scurvy gave me trouble sleeping and i stopped readig it in public places because i couldn't control my facial expressions of horror/revulsion/despair. also i think scurvy has now replaced both pregnancy and getting my wisdom teeth taken out on my list of greatest fears, meaning it is now #2 behind moths. 

parts that really got to me included

mr blanky's escape from the tuunbaq, irving laughing and joking with the Inuit, the entire thing with peglar and bridgens, goodsir talking about scurvy and documenting his own symptoms, fitzjames' death, fucking JOPSON being left behind on his BIRTHDAY (that scene was harrowing and like. i knew it would be harrowing! i have seen the show none of this was news but oh my god. oh my. god.), goodsir's death... just goodsir in general, to be honest. hickey was also more enjoyable as a chaotic creature here than in the show.

i just think it says something that depsite having watched the show and knowing how everything plays out and already being very distrubred by the show, the book managed to somehow provoke an even stronger reaction and kept me so gripped i got through all 750 pages in under 5 days whilst being at a music festival. book ratings are based off of my connection to the book and despite all it's issues i sure did feel many things whilst reading this!!! the real terror is the slowly creeping inevitability of certain death and the fact that we know!! we know that no matter how hard these character struggle, they will all be claimed by the ice by the time the book is finished!! there's beauty in that and in the sheer humanity of how different people respond to the certainty of death in different ways. makes me a little bit insane if i think about it too much.

i do think the supernatural aspects were the weakest point for me and the last 80 pages were therefore not as strong as the rest but only because the realism of the horror was already at its peak (also the aforementioned ick about using Inuit culture as a backdrop for horror fiction but anyway) with the scurvy and the frostbite and the starvation and whatnot. 

id on't know man sometimes you just need a horrifying horrific tragedy heavily based on real events that deeply disturbs and upsets you in order to cope!!!!

i think i am going to rewatch the show now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Addiction, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Animal death, Kidnapping, Violence, Death, Body horror, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Vomit, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Grief, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Cursing, Colonisation, Classism, Cannibalism, Blood, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Abandonment, Drug use, and Racism

domreadsb00ks's review

challenging dark 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

4.5

The real life Franklin expedition sailed off into the Arctic waters to doscover the Northeest passage. No one knows what happened to them. There are some Inuit accounts of crazed white men stumbling across the arctic wastelands, some even resorting to cannibalism, but no solid evidence. 
The Terror reimagines the experience of these 150 men, all told expertly through a handful of key characters. Each chapter begins with the date and location of the character at that point, and a nice detail is that the location and date gradually become more unclear and then completely unknown towards the end of the book, and the end of the crew.
All the traditional perils of the Arctic are here; the ice freezing the ships into place and tearing them apart; the cold wind turning men's noses black with frostbite and scurvy induced by the stale food. But there is something else out here. From the first page it is clear that something else stalks the men, larger and more intelligent than anything encountered before.
And yet it turns out that not even a genuine monster is more terrifying than the human mind pushed past its breaking point. The cast of this book are  well-crafted; you genuinely want them to survive. 
Certain scenes genuinely made me so tense waiting for what happened next, and others made me genuinely sad and frustrated with events both out of and in the characters' control.
Really recommend this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racism, Alcoholism, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Grief, and Mental illness

theleppy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Torture and Vomit

Minor: Homophobia