Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

11 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

ssummar's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Blood, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Grief, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Slavery, Torture, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Colonisation, and Racism

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

franzys_whip's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Literally beautiful book. Think The Most Dangerous Game but like 10 times better (at least imo). Covers topics of colonialism (in sort of a fictional way but still) and being haunted by your past so well. Lighthearted/funny moments never felt forced or out of place, and there aren't so many of them in the hunt bits to make it lessen the sense of danger. Characters had so much depth and I loved every minute of it.

A teeny tiny bit slow in the beginning. Just a little. Coming from a person who reads pretty fast-paced books most of the time though, it's really not that bad.

#edward addington needs to choke on a bag of rotten horse dicks #olivia did nothing wrong #fuck manifest destiny and all of its consequences

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Grief, and Gun violence

Minor: Death of parent

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

wrensreadingroom's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Cursing, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Slavery, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Animal death, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Addiction, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, and Torture

starrysteph's review against another edition

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? No

3.0

What a peculiar little book. 

The concept was fantastic; what if the anthropomorphic animals from your favorite classic childhood book were real? But what if their stories weren't quite so sweet - and they were out for murderous revenge?  

The plot was imaginative and I think the author's skill was best utilized during the excerpts of the story within a story (written as epic poetry). Seriously, the poetry was awesome. 

I also enjoyed the characterization of each of the four main animals. I loved the initial playfulness, and the wonder & charm at meeting these literary characters come to life. 

However, the greater content of the book fell flat for me. It was painfully overwritten. Every single sentence was streeeeetched out, unnecessarily so, and it often felt like "fun time with a thesaurus". I love lyrical writing, but I did not find it to be particularly well done or at all justified here. It felt like an attempt at pretentiousness without depth, and it just made my head hurt. (It was hugely ironic that there are two characters within this book who speak in an unbearably academic way - the others poke fun at them.)

I'm sure this is partially because of the writing, but the pacing was very mismatched. The first 100 or so pages were a real drag to get through, and I'm sure many readers gave up before we even got to the juicy action. And even when everything exploded and the horror began, we rushed through some exciting moments and painfully lingered on others. 

My other major gripe was the amount of perfectly timed moments and coincidences. Everyone was saved from death at the last possible second (JUST as the knife was going in, etc.). Characters came back from death (well, the very brink of death I guess) so many times that their final deaths lost their impact on me as a reader.

There were some eloquent quotes & reflections towards the end of the book that gave me pause. Overall, excellent concept with some high quality moments ... but ultimately weakened by the prose.

CW: violence, death, murder, self harm, slavery, animal cruelty, animal death, suicidal thoughts, death of parent, abandonment, confinement

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

irenemarie's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Slavery

Minor: Death of parent, Vomit, Abandonment, and Gun violence