Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

14 reviews

missdaniellexo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Gun violence, Death, Gore, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Self harm

ilaxaria's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Colonisation, Gun violence, Self harm, Murder, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol

rivercat0338's review

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The author's prose style is a lot. The story is worth pushing through if you can, however. 

I wish the owls' part was explained better, and how Gene fits in. There's no way he doesn't have some idea of what was going on if

people you take out to a "deserted" island routinely vanish

.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Blood, Colonisation, Genocide, Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Classism, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Self harm, and Torture

ocean_in_a_teardrop's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

Flackwell and Runny were lovers and you cannot change my mind on that.

Overall, I loved this book! Even though there were sentences and phrases were hard to understand at times due to their wording, some questions left unanswered that I would have loved answers for, as well as the ability of characters both human and animal to survive the seemingly impossible after graphic injuries that should've killed them, the rest of this book absolutely makes up for these failings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Gore

gondorgirl's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Confinement, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Stalking, Animal death, Self harm, and Violence

casmith512's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Violence, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Abandonment, and Fire/Fire injury

kurumipanda's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcohol, Colonisation, Confinement, Self harm, and Genocide

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

cait's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gaslighting, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Physical abuse, Vomit, Cultural appropriation, Kidnapping, Murder, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Genocide, Gun violence, Self harm, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Violence

thewellbitch's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Good plot, great prose, but the narrator (the author) did an awful voice job.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Murder, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Torture

Minor: Abandonment and Death of parent

monsterofidaho's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

My thoughts about Winterset Hollow come in two halves. The tone of Durham's writing feels very put on at times. Between that and the numerous typos, the technical aspects of the book feel very much like the work of a debut author. On the other hand, the actual themes of the story are fascinating. The story being told through the characters, ignoring the stilted dialogue and the faux-British narrative style, is definitely something to come back to more than once.

Winterset Hollow clearly takes inspiration from Watership Down. Despite the story itself being set in the Pacific Northwest and the fact that the author himself is not British, it seems as though he's trying to fully imitate that style of narration and it does not work. It's clunky and it detracts from what parts of the story actually work. Bits of prose feel somewhat pretentious at times and Durham does a lot of preemptive thinking for the reader, as though he wants to be positively sure that the reader will come to the same conclusion as him no matter what.

That said, the actual story of Winterset Hollow is beautiful, wild, and devastating. As someone who grew up with Watership Down and Grimms' fairy tales, this story means a lot. The four antagonists are usually more interesting than the other characters--with the exception of Eamon, who also has a lot going on--and the way that Runny, Flackwell, Finn, and Bing all try to cope with their traumas and seek vindication are treated as complexly as they should be.

Finn's rage and his inability to stop hunting Eamon to the death no matter how his friends try to reason with him is bittersweet with an emphasis on the bitter. He's a terrible person but there's also something to relate to with never wanting to forgive your abusers.

If Durham can improve his technical skill, I will be thrilled to see what other writing he publishes in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Colonisation, Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Slavery, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abandonment and Confinement