Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

91 reviews

hazelgirl21's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Abortion, and Death of parent

Minor: Incest and Rape

mitchelldavis1997's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

All I can say is, I wish Goodreads had a vocal option to talk about a book. I absolutely loved this book. I don’t really have words to describe how much this book meant to me. There was love, action, killing, the most importantly, the power of friendship and hope This book has not received the hypo that deserves. I think that this book went onto so many levels that people need to explore you’re gonna laugh they’re gonna cry. They’re gonna do everything and I certainly hope that this gets added to everyone’s 2025 Book books to read. I am so excited to share this book with my friends because I think that everyone will learn to love this book so much. This is a great book for people that maybe don’t literary fiction but love murder mystery true crime, coming of age everything in so I just think it’s a great book. This is why you need voice reviews! I can’t say enough good things about this. I would say this is probably in my top 10 favorite books of all times at this moment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

memusings's review

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, and Murder

This is not for the HSP reader. For all the content warnings and they are legion, this is such a well told story that weaves so many threads and brings them to a fulfilling conclusion.

nczaja's review

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

The description of the book reads as a thriller with a bit of a love story mixed in but it’s more of a literary book following characters through 25+ years from teenagers to adulthood. If I were mentally prepared for that I would’ve enjoyed it more. 

The beginning is good and the ending is good but everything in between drags on. Don’t let the number of chapters scare you, the longest chapter is just a couple pages long. Overall, I’m done with it and am glad it’s over. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse, Incest, Abortion, and Death of parent

smkelly1997's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

Saint is determined to save Patch. Patch is determined to save her. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

april_reads's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

All the Colors of the Dark is an impressive blend of mystery, thriller, coming-of-age, young love, and found family, all seamlessly woven into one compelling story.

The narrative centers on Patch and Saint, two friends bound by a lifelong connection. When Patch goes missing, Saint refuses to give up, doing whatever it takes to bring him home. After his rescue, Patch becomes consumed with finding Grace, a girl he was held captive with, setting the stage for a poignant and suspenseful journey.

While the book is slow-paced and perhaps a touch longer than necessary, the payoff is undeniably worth it. All the Colors of the Dark is a richly layered tale that will linger with you long after the final page.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Kidnapping, Abortion, Death of parent, and Murder

surlamer7803's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.5

A good and well written story but about 1/3 too long. Overall though it was just sad and hard to get into because it just kept pulling you down. I don’t regret reading it but I didn’t necessarily enjoy reading it either. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse

kay_chan's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Split rating, rounded up:
Formatting & Storyline Execution: ⭐️
Characterization & development: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Writing style & theme elements: ⭐️⭐️

I have a lot of thoughts about this book. The storyline could have been decent had the execution been delivered accordingly. This did not need to be over 200 mini chapters with varying povs and no sense of a timeline. I was annoyed from the get-go. I feel like this book took me so much longer than it should have just to get through. Honestly could have been summed up in under 80 chapters. 

Besides getting to know the characters very well, there's a lot of alluding and plot holes that never get explained-I'm assuming all for the sake of characters being mysterious. Serious plot points are only mentioned incredibly briefly, so if you're not paying attention amongst the monotony, you end up having to go back a lot. 

I'm honestly happy that in the end, Patch did not get caught and put back in jail. I was confused for a bit of the book about who and why exactly he was back in jail for because they had alluded to him murdering a zookeeper and I was so confused. And I at least cannot remember a conversation between Patch and Saint about the relationship between Saint and her veterinarian ex-husband, the abusive POS. I was also surprised that Saint took on "raising" Charlotte in Patch's absence. I would have liked to hear more about the relationship between Patch and the correctional officer. It's also quite curious that both Patch and the Doctor ended up at the same jail. And at least for the audiobook, I had a difficult time remembering minor characters and how they were involved in the storyline. At first I didn't even recognize Grace's father's name and how he was connected to the murders and with the doctor. And it goes against the storyline having his conclusion so far away from the storyline conclusion because by the end of it I didn't even remember what had happened to him- was he murdered? Did he go to jail? I don't know , I assume so. But that would have been a good placement near the end chapter for a reminder of what had happened in his case.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, and Blood

Minor: Homophobia, Abortion, and Murder

hellokaley's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

4.5

4.5 for one of my most anticipated reads this year. This literary saga spans almost a lifetime for our main characters. I enjoyed the writing style and was on the edge of my seat with the thrilling chapters, but the whole story is not overall a thriller, more of a mystery. And even the mystery is kind of a subplot in the story of the characters overall lives. 

Strong character development for both the main protagonists and the supporting characters. There were a number of side stories throughout, but I really quite liked them and it felt appropriate for the years that the book spans. 

I enjoyed the mystery and overall enjoyed the story. For me, it was a bit long and it felt like maybe it could have benefited from a tiny bit more editing. Overall, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Abortion

Minor: Incest and Rape

faithemt's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.0

highly disappointing. Much preferred We Begin at the End by same author. 
this dragged on, was redundant in spots and took forever to resolve. LOTS of editing errors and even geographical ones (palmetto trees do NOt grow in mountains!! they're a seaside tree hahah). 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Abortion