Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

5 reviews

tessays's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Domestic abuse

Minor: Rape

ekmook's review

dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Blood, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Murder, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity

Minor: Rape

kerrygetsliterary's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

bookish_arcadia's review

challenging dark tense slow-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? Yes

2.5

I found Catriona Ward's Last House on Needless Street difficult to rate because it required such a leap, such a determination to suspend disbelief and ignore the essential silliness of some of its conceits. At the same time it was so cleverly constructed and so utterly gripping that I couldn't stop reading it. I pushed through and enjoyed it in the end. Unfortunately, she hasn't managed the same trick here. The silliness remains in the sheer unlikeliness of everything that happens but this time, much is predictable. The emotional resonance is missing from the characters, I just didn't root for Rob and Jack in the same way. There was more potential in Callie but she is underused and the whole present-day narrative was used just as a way to inject some mystery into the unfolding of Rob's past.

I don't even want to go into the ideas about predispositions to violence and "badness", it's the sort of reductive essentialism that I can't get on board with.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Domestic abuse, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Rape

viktoriab's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Reading this book took me a long time, but I binged most of it in one day. At first, you might think it's slow but oh boy, does that change later! Sundial is a story of family, upbringing, magic, nature vs nurture and a ton of other things. I'm not including any description of the plot because I feel like everyone should just experience it for themselves. Please check trigger warnings if you have any! I can't stop thinking about this story and everything that happened in it. It was extremely vivid, real and scary. I don't know if it should be classified as horror or thriller because it seems to fit both of these categories - if you read The Last House on Needless Street you probably understand what I mean. The plot twists in this book, the reveals, the memories slowly being revealed, it was all amazing and the last plot twist made me up my rating a star! Giving it 4 stars just because the beginning was a little bit slow and I wasn't a fan of the "book inside a book" parts (that might change if I ever decide to reread this book).

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this book early!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape