Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Das Dorf der toten Seelen by Camilla Sten

20 reviews

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

This book grabbed me from the beginning and didn’t let me go! I liked the premise and found the book unsettling. The writing was atmospheric and eerie, with suspense slowly building throughout the book. I’m always a fan of stories about unsolved mysteries and abandoned towns!

As always, I love switching POVs and timelines. The alternating timelines added to the suspense of the story. We see the present day as filmmakers go to the old mining town to make a documentary about the murder of a woman and disappearance of nearly 900 residents from the 1950s. The other timeline takes place during 1959, revealing the events that led up to the murder and disappearance.

I also liked the characters. They were complex and well developed, even the supporting characters! The plot twists usually caught me off guard and a couple I was able to guess. But the ones I guessed were the only logical solution as things became revealed so I wouldn’t call them predictable or cliche. 

There are one or two things that were left open ended and wish would’ve been addressed more. But I can’t say more without spoiling it 😅

The only other thing I didn’t like was the way mental illness is handled; it wasn’t great and was fairly problematic. The author uses the character’s misunderstanding of mental illness as a plot device. I don’t want to go more into it and give away any spoilers but there were several statements that just didn’t sit well for me. This made me drop a star from the overall rating.

It’s a perfect spooky season read given the concept and suspense. I’d recommend if you enjoy ghost stories or unsolved mysteries! If you choose to pick this one up, be aware of the use of mental illness and the other trigger warnings (there’s a lot). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Body horror, and Gore

Minor: Alcoholism and Miscarriage

courtofcatsandcoffee's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

▫️genre: horror
▫️trope: ghost town, documentary crew
▫️format: audio

↠ Well-written but SO SLOW
↠ Liked the concept as the story unraveled, but I wasn’t scared as promised
↠ Flashbacks to the past were creepy and the best parts of the book
↠ If you liked 𝙈𝙞𝙙𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙨 on Netflix this is for you 
↠ If you make it to 57% it gets wild 
↠ Great voice actress for the audio!
↠ I added a 1/4 star because I was having trouble focusing at this time and think I could appreciate the details more with a more engaged mind 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Violence, and Sexual content

dylpickles's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Brain washing

spacecadelliot's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Genocide, Medical content, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt

bookishgoob's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

the atmosphere of this book was definitely chilling. there is mention of sexual assault & in another part it is hinted that a character was sexually assaulted. the ending made me feel like there should have been a bit more. it felt a little empty but it was enjoyable and creepy nonetheless 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Violence

laura_watiklees's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

SCARY

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gore

Minor: Rape and Alcoholism

madarauchiha's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.0

 ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜  my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 💜 💙 💚 💛 🧡 ❤️

It's a passable horror story. It's not so much supernatural horror as it is religious and human horror. It's definitely tense, with some scary parts. There's more gore-horror than scary-horror, if that makes sense. I felt like it could have used more paranoia inducing stalking / hunting scenes. Otherwise it was pretty satisfactory. The ending was solid and answered every question posed. Despite the content warnings, this isn't too tortureporn-y. The writing and translation was clear and enjoying too.

Content warnings.

minor alcohol use, alcoholism, asphyxiation, blood, bone fractures, cancer, child abuse, confinement, death, emetophobia, infertility, jonestown massacre, mass suicide, miscarriage, murder, pedophilia, pregnancy, rape, self harm, sexual violence, smoking tobacco, suicide ideation, whorephobic language [used twice]


medium ableism towards person with autism, child abuse, childbirth, cults, emetophobia, medical content, mental illness, pregnancy, psychosis, sexual assault, suicide, suicide attempt


major ableism, arson? / explosions, cults, death, gore, murder, religion catholicism

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Abandonment, Medical content, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Vomit, Infertility, Suicide, Miscarriage, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual violence, Drug use, and Suicidal thoughts

creepycrawlybookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

This was a great audio read, that had me hooked quickly. There were some more predictable plot points, but others that I didn't expect too! I became more invested in the characters as the story progressed, even though not all were loveable, that isn't an issue for me particularly, as I'd rather read about flawed, interesting characters, than sugar-coated ones.
There was also a good mix of creepiness and suspense amongst the characters themselves, as well as in the town, and it worked well alongside the group dynamic and documentary parts of the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gore, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, and Torture

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Blood, and Ableism

Minor: Cursing

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.5

unfortunately, i thought this book was incredibly disappointing. the story was very predictable, and the characters were very flat and unlikable. i didn't like how the author

didn't want us to feel TOO bad about max dying so she had this inorganic scene where he tells alice that he funded her project to get in her pants? it just felt incredibly contrived and out of nowhere.

i was also disappointed by

how shallow and flat mattias was. she just kinda told us that he was a psychopath from the notes that alice had, but everything he did in the town was behind-the-scenes. the reader is told very little and is shown even less. i hated that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Rape and Vomit

lanidon's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

Trash. Stop making mentally ill people villains. Boring, slow, unsatisfying ending. I find it genuinely immoral to call this horror

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence