Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

11 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

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

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

uchihas's review

challenging dark tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, and Murder

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

Minor: Confinement, Vomit, Slavery, Abandonment, Classism, and Colonisation

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

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

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

tkatt20's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. I almost DNFd at 20 pages because I did not like the writing style and I found it too descriptive and long winded, but something told me to keep reading and I am so happy I did. The characters were so fleshed out and well crafted that they were practically jumping off the pages, with an equally elegant setting to boot. There were so many layers to this story I could go on and on about all the emotions it made me feel and all the questions it gave me about my own morality but I truly have no words to express how good this book is. I rarely cry when reading books but this one had me sobbing when I reached the ending. The pacing was beautiful and matched an equally beautiful story and I am forever adding this book to my recommendations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Self harm, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, and Animal death

Minor: Death of parent, Slavery, Colonisation, Abandonment, and Genocide