Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

Night's Edge by Liz Kerin

11 reviews

jesssicawho's review

dark medium-paced

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

2.5

Just not for me. It was messy and I didn’t like any of the characters. In my opinion, it was less of a story about vampires and more about family dysfunction. Not poorly written, just not something I enjoyed reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, and Emotional abuse

anothergirlanotherbook's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Blood, Abandonment, Addiction, Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

aparker89's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Medical trauma, Grief, Outing, Mental illness, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Stalking, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Drug use, Alcohol, Death, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Death of parent, Violence, and Self harm

Minor: Religious bigotry

grey_jayne's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.5

Night's Edge is really cool, set in a parallel present day where safety from vampires is a daily concern and built into the society. The narrative alternates between 2010 (where vampire events skew the timeline to different than ours) and Now. And this makes the book sci-fi, even though most of the story is as human as you can get, a lesbian coming of age story when Mia was 10 and 23. I'd love a movie, a book sequel, whatever to get more time with Mia, she's such a great character.

I do want to bring up that it's 2023 and naming voices "male" or "female" is so dated. It happens several times and really took me out of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Self harm, Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Child abuse, Blood, and Toxic relationship

jamieleepilk's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Murder, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Death, Drug use, Alcohol, Blood, and Body horror

Minor: Infertility, Gun violence, Stalking, and Violence

alreads13's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Violence, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Forced institutionalization and Death

amobrien's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.25

A worldwide pandemic called Saras spreads, allowing people to turn others into vampires. Though treatment centers pop-up, there is no cure, and Mia's mother Izzy, who was turned by an abusive ex, worries that the treatment centers are a cover for medical testing. At the age of 10, Mia suddenly becomes solely responsible for taking care of her mother.

For over a decade, Mia has been drawing her own blood for her mother, avoiding making any relationship that might alert people to her mother's condition. When the man who turned her mother starts coming back into their lives, Mia's strained relationship with her mother begins to crumble and she starts searching for an escape.

Night's Edge is a fantastic story about toxic relationships and the difficulty in leaving them as well as the feeling of obligation. Mia's anxiety is contagious — I was so stressed while reading! This was a fantastic horror with an amazing premise. Please check content warnings before reading though and be warned that this is not a good book for you if you're squeamish.

Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Gun violence

Minor: Medical content

enchantressreads's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

4.0

“Every night, the darkness devours another piece of her. I have no way of knowing how much is left. “

Mia is just 10 years old when she finds her mom’s lifeless body. And Mia is 10 years old when she feeds her mother blood for the first time. 

Night’s Edge is not your typical vampire story. In this book, Kerin took some inspiration from the Covid Pandemic to create something horrifying. It’s been years since Saratov Syndrome began, and there are plenty of precautions in place to make sure people are safe. But Mia is far from living a normal life. She still feeds her mother from her veins.

It’s not only horrifying, but it’s sad. This book will hit hard with all femmes, but especially those with strained mother-daughter/child relationships. For every child who had to grow up too fast. For every child who became the parent. It hits very close to home.

It’s also gay, which I loved. I’m glad queers can exist freely even among deadly vampires.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the chance to read this advanced review copy. 

CW: blood, HP reference, death, child/emotional abuse, abandonment, panic attacks, murder, gun violence, addiction

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Child abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Abandonment, Death, Physical abuse, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, and Drug abuse

Harry Potter reference

ruthlessreads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

4.5

A beautiful & brutal novel, I loved this new take on the vampire trope. Mia's mother is turned into a vampire (called Saras) one night when she's 10. She spends the next 13 years helping her mother stay hidden & fed, subsuming her entire existence in a toxic death spiral. This is where our book starts.  

I found this story compelling & thoughtful, a realistic imagining of toxic family relationships compounded by supernatural (& natural) threats. It uses the lens of the supernatural to focus on childhood abuse and neglect, parentification and enmeshment, showing the negative consequences of that kind of relationship and the way it can stunt the growth of everyone involved. However, it's also a deeply queer story, recounting the risks we are willing to take when we start to taste our true selves and the freedom that comes with it. 

I really liked the writing and the story never felt boring or stale, despite the use of familiar tropes. The characters, especially Mia & her mom, feel very real and I found myself very wrapped up in what was happening in their world. The only thing I didn't like was that the vampires are called Saras, after the first people discovered to require blood to live, the Saratovs. I did think the history of how "Saratov Syndrome" spread throughout the world was very interesting and I was glad that was included because, otherwise, giving the vampires a different name just feels like it's trying too hard to *not* be a vampire book. 

Overall, I loved the book. I highly recommend for horror fans, vampire aficionados, and anyone who wants to feel so stressed out by a book that they can't sit still (seriously, in the last 20 pages I had to set it down and pace around my house at 3:30am to get rid of some of my nervous energy). Definitely check trigger warnings, as there are a LOT of sensitive topics that I could see being incredibly difficult for someone to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Gore

Moderate: Cursing, Medical content, Drug use, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and Infidelity

Minor: Religious bigotry and Bullying

I want to be very clear that the depictions of child abuse and toxic family relationships are a huge part of the book. I tagged part of this in the content warnings but didn't want to spoil anything but

the mother dies at the end.

clairebonney's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Body horror, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit