Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Wonderland by Jennifer Hillier

13 reviews

alexjarvis's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

0.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia, Child abuse, Misogyny, and Homophobia

foxmulders's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

2.0

hillier can keep me reading bc she's talented but....this one was kind of a mess. the twist at the end feels lazy and there are some Questionable character choices throughout that are gross.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Torture, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Violence, Suicide, Transphobia, and Rape

rachel2887's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

SO MANY characters and maybe murderers! It wasn't bad, just busy with a lot of trauma thrown in there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexual content, Child abuse, Grief, Blood, Confinement, and Adult/minor relationship

reaganfink104's review

dark tense fast-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? No

4.25

a random but insane KU find. definitely not where i thought the book was going but what a great end. lots of good twists to keep you guessing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

traa's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Sexual harassment, and Stalking

Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Deadnaming, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Suicide, Transphobia, Vomit, Excrement, Infidelity, Alcohol, Cancer, Abortion, Physical abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Police brutality, and Alcoholism

Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, Slavery, and Fatphobia

bluenikol82's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Violence

Minor: Transphobia, Death of parent, and Deadnaming

bee87's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This book is one of the most disturbing I’ve ever read. I just can’t describe it. If you’re into horror it’s for you! 

I received a free copy from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for honest review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Infidelity, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Murder, Death of parent, Grief, and Pedophilia

onemorepagecrew's review against another edition

challenging dark tense

4.0

Wonderland by Jennifer Hillier is gritty and truly horrific.  I’m an avid reader of disturbing thrillers and this one is packed full of unredeemable characters.  I’m saying this upfront because I know some people are already thinking “interesting, go on” and others are more “hard pass.”  

 

For the “go on” crew, you probably already know that Hillier pushes it with her characters and her crimes.  I used to think Jar of Hearts was the most graphic and disturbing, so this one being worse kinda snuck up on me.  The story takes place at Wonderland theme park when an unidentifiable unalive body is found, sparking a chain of events and a detective investigation that reveals increasingly horrific things.  There is one scene in particular where I just couldn’t… **shudder** 

 

This was a tough read that I couldn’t put down.  She’s an auto-read author for a reason, her stories pull me in and don’t let me go.  Be prepared for an unapologetic and twisted read. 

 

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for sharing an advanced listening copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.  I appreciate you!  The print edition of this book was originally published in 2015 and the audio edition will be available in April 2023 – I highly recommend audio, the narration from Eunice Wong was on point.  I had to check to see if there were multiple narrators because she differentiated the characters so well. 

 

Content warnings: Death, adult/Minor relationship, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Confinement, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Self-harm 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Kidnapping, Confinement, and Self harm

shaniamarie21's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death and Child abuse

tysbooks's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was not what I was expecting at all. We follow the new chief deputy of Seaside PD, Vanessa, who is investigating the appearance of a dead body at Wonderland. This amusement park is the money maker for this small town and any bad publicity could detrimental. As Vanessa digs deeper into this case, she uncovers that boys have been going missing and slowly discovers some disturbing details about Wonderland.

I can see why some people might not like this book and I think having the right expectations going into this will help with the experience of the story. The cover would suggest there might be some horror elements and this being set at an amusement park, one would think the story would take place primarily at the park. That is not the case. This is a police investigation around missing boys and the park comes into play becomes most of the characters work at the park. I really enjoyed learning about the conspiracy of the park and the secrets of some of the characters and all of the cover ups that had been done to protect the reputation of the park and therefore the town. However, I wished we could have spent more time at Wonderland and more time with the characters there. I also felt sort of dissatisfied with the ending. After some of the reveals, it left me with more questions than answers and it would have been nice to get a resolution. I wasn’t disappointed by this, but I did expect a little bit more going into it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual harassment