Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver

52 reviews

dopabean_reading's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Torture, Vomit, Violence, Murder, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Mental illness, Cursing, Gore, and Body horror

Moderate: Mental illness, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Confinement

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Child abuse

cclift1114's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Dark, disturbing, fun, funny and romantic all in one book? Surprising, but true. While our two MC’s are both serial killers, they’re after other serial killers, so you gotta love that. And then they fall in love with each other? Even better. These two end up being relatable in a weird way and you root for them and care about them. And of course, I’m gonna appreciate the fact that the serial killers they go after are based on those from popular movies, such as Psycho, Silence of the Lambs and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 

For sure check the trigger warnings and be prepared for the ick factor with gore and violence. But don’t be too scared away by the warnings about cannibalism; I promise our MC’s are not the ones enjoying it. 

On a side note, if you’re an audiobook listener, I’d highly recommend listening to this one. From all the audiobooks I’ve listened to, this one was unique because not only did they have two narrators for the MC’s, they were simultaneously narrating instead of just having the male narrator do everything in the chapter for Rowan and the female narrator for Sloan. So if you’re someone that doesn’t care for men try to do women’s voices or vice versa, you won’t have that with this book. Rowan’s narrator handles all his dialogue and Sloane’s all of hers. And the narrators are also just talented. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual content, and Torture

Minor: Vomit and Mental illness

beccisays's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional lighthearted medium-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

5.0

There's art in our scars. There's wonder in the way we heal. 

Fuck yes, more love stories like this please. This book really had no business being so beautifully emotional and so hilariously unhinged. Absolute chaotic perfection. Oh and the smut 🙌🏻  

Side note: I don’t make the rules but it’s a cardinal sin to consume this book in any other format than the audiobook. The dual POV narration, the Irish accent of Rowan our MMC, the occasional overlapping dialogue and sound effects. Chefs fucking kiss.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cannibalism, Vomit, Torture, Sexual content, Murder, Mental illness, Gore, Death, and Cursing

ahbee_p_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Murder, Violence, Gore, Cannibalism, and Death

Moderate: Cursing, Stalking, Mental illness, Medical content, and Blood

Minor: Vomit

asanders88's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-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

4.5

Their lives are daring and bold and the relationship between them since the begging is hilarious and sarcastic.  His pining, *chefs kiss*! 
Great story line,  though I would call the climax too "climax-y" since there's murder and danger throughout (no spoilers,  though).
My only complaint (and this is just personal preference), is that I want my morally-grey,  serial killer men to be a little bit more golden retriever when he finally gets to have sex with the woman that he's loved for years.  They just went straight into it! It was spicin' for sure

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Stalking, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Physical abuse, Confinement, Vomit, Murder, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Mental illness

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Excrement, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Medical content, Mental illness, Vomit, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Child abuse, Blood, Misogyny, Bullying, Drug use, Cannibalism, Car accident, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Stalking, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

klunakd's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Cannibalism, Death, Murder, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Sexual content

booksalacarte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful lighthearted tense medium-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

3.75

Butcher and Blackbird- 3.75⭐️ 4🌶️

Contemporary romance

Dark romcom

Dark romance

Dual POV

He falls first

Slow burn

Open door spice

If you ignore the trigger warnings, that on you… cause they aren’t satire.

This was surprisingly a good read. I mean it was out there, with serial killing serial killers falling in love. But it followed the normal contemporary romance formulas. The flirty banter was good. The tongue in cheek silliness was really what made this story stand out. It’s a book that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and I appreciate that.

I find it interesting how actual little we know about the pasts of the main characters. We got brief overviews, and the internal dialogue just lets us assume their histories or “SK origin stories” were bad, and moves on. I don’t know if that is enough for such defined characters or not. It was a little flippant, like an offhand remark, only it was both characters “why”. 

Other than that, this was a great funny, messed up, dark romcom. The similarities to the show “Dexter” is obvious.

I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!

Thank you NetGally anx Zando for an Advanced eReader Copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gaslighting, Vomit, Cannibalism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Blood, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Death, and Dysphoria

kat7794's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Blood, Cannibalism, Vomit, Death of parent, Death, Gore, Torture, Gun violence, Violence, Mental illness, Murder, and Sexual content

torilovesheas's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

1.5

Ya know, when accidental cannibalism is the highlight of a book, maybe I should reevaluate but...the accidental cannibalism is the highlight of the book. It's marketed as a dark romantic COMEDY but I found nothing funny? It's humor that tried really hard to be effortless and dry and I was straight up not having a good time. Because it was mostly slap stick moments or like... Three Stooges comedy? I know humor is subjective but I expected at least a little haha. Not a haha to be found, pals. 

This is supposed to be about two serial killers but?? All Sloane does is cry, get injured or captured by her target, and lament because she thinks she's not loveable. (She cries SO much oh my god). And Rowan is just... gaga over her the whole time for literally no reason. She's constantly the damsel and he's constantly rescuing her. If these were real life serial killers, they'd have been caught after the first kill because these two are vomiting at crime scenes, getting their fingerprints on every conceivable surface, and just casually getting seen by their victim's captives like it's NBD. They'd have been CAUGHT so quick in real life. There's no psychopathy, no sociopathy, no serial killer-ness to these two, dude. Just regular schmegular human beings killing horrifically I suppose? Their MOs were so convoluted and ridiculous? . So we've got...no background, ridiculously complicated MOs, and no real serial killer attributes? Alright. What happened to their families? Couldn't tell ya. 

Which leads me to the biggest travesty of this whole book. How do you make a book about serial killers that kill serial killers falling in love THIS boring? I expected competition between them per the blurb and we saw it for five seconds and then it ran away into the yonder. I don't care about your mundane lives or your 9-5 or your restaurant opening or what you ate for dinner when we could be talking about murder?? Hello?? Idk the pacing was mad weird due to the fact that it takes place over 4 years and we're only seeing them spend a few days together each year and texting the rest (which we hardly ever see). It was boring. I was bored. A feat, truly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Cursing, Violence, Cannibalism, Kidnapping, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Death, and Murder