Reviews tagging 'Death'

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

129 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Violence, Death, Torture, Blood, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Minor: Pregnancy, Racism, Toxic friendship, and Police brutality

bookforestsprite's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

Moderate: Violence and Gore

noodlesny's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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: Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Blood, Murder, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Cursing

There's an unorthodox minor/adult relationship. It's not the standard type of disturbing of, say, a 30 yr old 'dating' a 16 yr old. It's a similar theme that comes up in certain anime at times, if you're familiar with those. It wasn't enough to make me stop reading but I was definitely uncomfortable with it and kept thinking about it throughout the reading.

So there was a 16 year old and a hundreds of years old immortal being that's in a teenaged body. This felt icky to me bc even though they did present and interact with the minor as a fellow teenager, they had the literal mind of a multi century old adult. They even mentioned them dating a present character's dead grandparent in the past. It's just weird.

blkunicorn's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

The plot “twist” was very predictable.

Overall the book was nice and a little fun. Bri frustrated me in her thought process sometimes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Violence and Death

Minor: Murder

abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, and Death

natraf_reads's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

I loved this greek mythology inspired tale of a teenage girl discovering more about herself and her lineage !

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Grief and Toxic friendship

mayachuchu13's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

Everything was great. Love the story, romance, plot twists. All of it was well thought-out and the MC is so likable, I was rooting for her since chapter one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gaslighting, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Gun violence

Only two confusing things (#2 is a spoiler): 1. If Bri literally has magic powers it’s kinda stupid how she has this “there’s no such thing as magic!” attitude every time she learns something new. You literally grew up with magic powers, why are you so doubtful of witches and spells??

2. At the end when Hecate save Bri, why couldn’t she have come before the mom died??? What triggers Hecate and why was that trigger so late??? I hope it’s answered in book 2 T-T

matmatmatty's review

adventurous 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? No

4.0

Loved this book! It has a real air of mystery about it and I found myself constantly reading because I wanted to put all the pieces together. Towards the end, I could not put it down! Cannot wait for the next book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Murder, Death, and Death of parent

gen_nh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

First couple of chapters were a bit slow for my preference but it picked up quickly after that and the relaxed and matter of fact way sexuality/race/gender is approached is great to read. Non of those factors were defining parts of the characters and were just naturally part of them. 

I loved the mix of tense action and emotional moments, and the mythology mixed with real life was really well executed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Death, and Gun violence

blewballoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

4 for the first half and more like 3 for the second half.
I had more fun at the beginning of this book than towards the end. Things got a little too goofy and the characters made some questionable choices as the story went on. I do think it's clear the author had a blast writing this and throwing in everything they wanted to, and I'm happy for them. I like media where I can tell the creators had a good time. If you've also read You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by this author, it might help you figure out one of the twists in this book. That was the case for me. I didn't love the twist there, and I liked it less here.

I think that's because I'm more of a "power of friendship" type person who likes to see platonic relationships shine.

I also didn't really like the love interest, Marie. Apart from being really pretty and nice to Briseis, she's kind of rude to everyone else and I didn't get a sense of her personality besides that. There's a scene with poison ivy that is completely implausible and inaccurate to how poison ivy works, which took me out for a bit and I had to complain about it to my boyfriend. For positives: I loved the two completely supportive and loving moms, they bring a lot of comedic relief to the story as well. I liked the plant magic and descriptions. I liked exploring a big old house with lots of secrets. There's a lot of fun stuff here, for sure. The writing is not bogged down by overly detailed descriptions or internal thoughts, so it reads quickly. This is definitely YA due to the age of the main character, but very readable and engaging for me as an adult reader as well. I did not realize this was a duology, I think it kind of works as a standalone even with the somewhat cliffhanger/open ending. I am not sure if I will read the 2nd book or not. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and Death

Minor: Racism