Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

160 reviews

belacqua's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.25

A chilling story about what we're willing to do to protect ourselves and those we love from trauma.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Child abuse

selkelite's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.25

A good fun read, somewhat marred by the comparison to Needless Street, Catriona’s previous and far better outing. 

Having read a couple of her other novels, it’s interesting to note just how obsessed she is with siblings, especially siblings who swap places in the plot and hide deep dark secrets about their relationship with each other. I’m not sure the ‘twists’ here were entirely successful — but I did feel the characters strongly as whole people, which is impressive when the plot is quite so outlandish as it is here. 

Side note: this book needs an enormous trigger warning for animal cruelty and animal death.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Domestic abuse

a_novel_craving's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Animal death, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Death, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, and Self harm

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

Please check trigger/content warnings. 
Quite enjoyed this. The twists and turns kept me interested along with the sister dynamic. Will def be checking out more from the author. 
If you choose to listen to audio with the ebook, just a heads-up some wording is different from each other. Minor differences but could potentially throw someone off 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Blood, Miscarriage, Medical content, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Violence

Moderate: Trafficking, Vomit, Kidnapping, Self harm, Torture, Confinement, Cursing, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Medical content, and Child death

Minor: Murder

seekaymack's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Child abuse, and Miscarriage

sasisaskia's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Death of parent, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

livlamentloathe's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

Until Rob and Callie got to Sundial and the flashback story started, I thought this was going to be an ableist story about mental illness. But it’s not that simple. It’s twisty in an unpredictable way. There’s enough going on that I was tricked into not knowing what would happen next! I’m typically ahead of the twist and find myself disappointed to have been right. But book isn’t about “a twist.” It’s not even a multitude of twists, although kinda. It’s a whole lot of fucked up normality that stewed in the heated desert of Sundial until finally… you know.

This was a very long book, and I wasn’t interested at turns. I put Baby Teeth down for the very reasons I didn’t enjoy the start of Sundial. But this story swerved past the ease of mom and daughter dislike each other. It kept going and going and going. When you think you know the truth, there’s still more buried. And ya know, isn’t that just the way (of people)? We’re all more complex than what others see us as. Callie doesn’t know everything about Rob, and Rob doesn’t know everything that is Callie, or Jack, or even Annie. The only simple thing is Irving. Trust a man to be violent and predictable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Self harm, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Violence, Animal death, Infidelity, and Physical abuse

Minor: Death, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Murder

honestlysean's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-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

will add full review later 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Child abuse and Addiction

wperdue92's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Total mind f. I’m mad at myself for not seeing the ending. Serious book hangover now 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Animal death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Blood, and Animal cruelty

keirahelena_'s review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, and Domestic abuse