Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

14 reviews

gabography's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

wow, what a read. for the first time in years, i finished this book in 36 hours. it was that engrossing to me. 
what an honestly bonkers concept turned out to be such a dark, fast paced, and surprisingly moving story written in a lovely prose that i can only imagine comes from the very stories that inspired the ensemble of not-so-cuddly creatures (some reviews did not care for that and some even called it pretentious, but i see what the author was going for and i loved it).
truly the only reason why this book doesn't earn a perfect five is due to the human characters, except for the one girl in the group named caroline who i liked a lot. to keep it as spoiler-free as possible because this book should be read blind, i found the main character to be the male equivalent of a mary sue at times, in the sense that you can tell he was the apple of the author's eye and had to be the most specialest lil guy of all the guys in the story, which felt a bit :/ as the story went on. while he was interesting and you feel for him, it all lining up the way it did just made me wish there was more there than just something that felt very "ope, he was special the whole time! surprise everyone!" like... okay. his male friend was also very one-note, left to be nothing more than the bumbling himbo sidekick who makes the main character look ever so clever and special in comparison.  if not for his bravery and care for caroline and their relationship tugging at my heart, i would not care for him at all. 
other than that, the world, the animal characters and their plight, the theme of trauma and loss and grief, all of it made for such a unique story that i know is going to stay with me. peter rabbit and friends are already looking a little more suspicious.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, Grief, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Abandonment, and Kidnapping

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

kathijo63's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

This is a difficult book to review.  It's not what I was expecting. I follow the author on social media and he is quite funny!  I knew the book wasn't a comedy but I was sort of expecting that to come through somehow.  The book is part fairy tale, part fantasy (talking animals), part horror, but also draws parallels to the treatment in the US of indigenous peoples.  I was enchanted, horrified, and ultimately felt deep sympathy for the residents of Addington Isle.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Torture

Moderate: Slavery

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

deebot's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Colonisation, Blood, Animal death, Violence, Trafficking, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Cultural appropriation

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

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