Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Credence by Penelope Douglas

54 reviews

clindsey73's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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cheeserue's review

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

2.5

"One phone call, a coach seat, and four states later, it finally occurs to me . . . I don’t know these people."

I have mixed feelings about this one. it was entertaining enough to pull me in and want to finish reading, but also the characters made me want to scream.

Tiernan is a meekly little thing who's never felt the love of her parents, not because they weren't there, but because they are too far up each other's asses to care about the fact that they chose to have a child. this causes her to not develop a personality or any self survival skills. she ships herself off to her "uncle" whom she's never met and barely heard of.

the boys are a combination of a 40somthing year old 'step' uncle who fucks the 25 y/o  neighborhood skanks, a who psychopathic mute who immediately tried to rape her upon meeting, and Noah who I kinda liked.

I will never understand why she chose keleb, they barely spend time together and when they are in the same room he has the most red flags out of all of them. you could play a drinking game with all the shitty things he does to her; but for some reason she forgives every little thing he's done the second she finds those books.

I'll give it to Penelope, she did have me feeling a bit for him while I was reading those 'journal' entries, however his trauma and inability to speak does not cancel out how toxic he was the whole book.

that threesome scene had me sweating like a sinner in church. 

don't even get me started with the ending. automatic loss of star for pregnancy trope, not all stories need to end in a marriage and kids.

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amberlynnnnn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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chaptermaggot's review

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
TLDR: Sheltered, almost-18 year old woman, newly orphaned by neglectful parents, must move in with estranged "Step Uncle" and his 2 sons. Grooming, cringe, verbal abuse, SA, ick and all other flavors of unseemly circumstances ensue. Young woman, ultimately failed by every adult in her life, almost ends up ok but in the end, understandably based on circumstances, chooses poorly for herself after all. The end.

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rshelton's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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gigi43's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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joclousing's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

3.5


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carleymorgen26's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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wickeddelights's review against another edition

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

3.0

You know when you can't look away from something that had you quite literally covering your mouth? That feeling is my whole review. I just sat there going "Oh, no." *turn page* OH NO! 😱

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bookameme's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Anti-Romance


Quote:📖
“In a few months, the snow will melt, and the world will invade us again, but right now . . . they’re mine. For this one winter, they’re mine.”

Thoughts: 💡
Sometimes I wish P Douglas wasn’t such an entertaining writer. This book sucks you in and keeps you rapidly turning the pages completely engrossed in the story. The problem is that she doesn’t seem to use sensitivity readers. She writes about a few topics that she’s clearly unknowledgeable about and creates very problematic scenarios. I’m certain that this book would rate much higher and be enjoyed by a wider audience if she makes a few revisions.
The characters are all struggling and have intense issues that they really should seek therapy for, instead they just hole up on a mountain and yell at each other. They do end up finding solas and a way to live, and create a very entertaining story. I wish we would have seen more character development, instead what we got were dark themes and crazy hot smut. The bonus chapter found at the end of the paperback gives you a look into Khalib’s struggles and thoughts. I loved that it finally gave insight into a marginalized character and their struggles. If you’re a dark romance reader I’m certain you will enjoy this one, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone that doesn’t like darker themes.
As for the audio, I liked that there were four different narrators. The audio quality was a solid 4, as well as the three male narrators. However, I think the female narrator was spectacular and would love to head more from her.

Fun Bits:
⚜️ Super Smutty
⚜️ Lots of Angst
⚜️ An Interesting Plot
⚜️ Some Suspense

Important Note:✨
This book was rereleased by Berkley and the paperback has bonus content that the eBook doesn’t have.

Full Content Warning:⚠️
misogynistic behavior, power imbalance, group sex, sexual violence, dubious consent, suicide, child neglect, domestic abuse, sexual harassment, and bondage

Stats:📊
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
💙💙💙💙
Audio: 🎧🎧🎧🎧
Narrators: 🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️
Dark Erotica: Taboo, Love Triangle, Coming of Age, Age Gap, Grief & Loss, Hurt/Comfort, Found Family
First Person, Present Tense, Multi POV
⚠️: misogynistic, power imbalance, group 🍆💦, 🍆💦 violence & harassment, dub con, self unaliving, neglect, & domestic 🤕

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