Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

29 reviews

yuyuv's review

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Drug use, Homophobia, Rape, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Medical content, Outing, Toxic friendship, Racism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence

judassilver's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual content, Murder, Violence, Confinement, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, Gore, and Alcohol

adelinebal4's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Toxic friendship, Excrement, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

clevelandbookgirl's review

dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Gaslighting, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Murder

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Excrement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Vomit, Racism, and Confinement

blackcatkai's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

CW: death, violence (guns and otherwise), ableism, mental illness, emotional manipulation, murder, kidnapping, sexual content, toxic relationships (romantic & otherwise), drug use, torture, gore, alcohol use, body horror, racism, sexism

this was pretty good, especially for a debut, in my opinion. not a huge fan of how some mental illness was handled, especially the use of words like 'psycho' and such, but this was definitely entertaining. a couple twists, one of which I definitely saw coming, complicated characters, weird relationships, drama, and just kept my attention the entire time. I feel the pace was good, and it was well put together. I'd definitely read more from Bartz in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Body horror, Murder, Blood, Gore, Death, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: Racism, Ableism, Sexism, and Grief

itsalina's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol, Slavery, and Drug use

pickupthebook's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I was hesitant going into this book because of all the mixed reviews, but decided to give it a shot because the plot sounded so interesting. I was hooked from the first line and remained entertained throughout. This book went from unsettling, to creepy, to downright disturbing and was a fun exploration of female friendships and the writing process, a critique of the publishing industry, and maybe a good reminder to never meet your heroes!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Confinement

Moderate: Murder, Blood, Death, Gore, and Violence

Minor: Vomit, Drug use, Alcohol, and Excrement

danajoy's review against another edition

dark tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Confinement, and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Vomit, Excrement, and Fire/Fire injury

mwetzel's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement and Death

nickthebooktoker's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.5

I had my reservations about this book, because I'd just abandoned a thriller with a similar premise (I've come across three different retreat-based thrillers published this year alone!) Like 'The Wilderness Retreat' by Jennifer Moore, this was another slow start, but thankfully the main character wasn't half as annoying so I was able to give 'The Writing Retreat' much more of a chance!

My interest was finally grabbed once we get to the retreat itself, which makes me think this is where the story should have started to begin with. The introductory stuff leading up to this felt unnecessary, or could have just been included later on through flashbacks to contextualise Alex (and Wren's) history.

Nonetheless, the story mostly kept me intrigued, albeit the action could have kicked in sooner. There was a lot of scenes involving the retreat participants getting to know each other/developing cliques and participating in writing workshops, which just wasn't very interesting to me. In fact, the first half kind of felt like a high school drama rather than a thriller. The characters simply didn't read as a a group of adults in their mid-twenties to me and came across as caricatures at some points.

On the plus side, I did enjoy some of the themes explored, with Bartz posing the question: does great art require pain and suffering? And how far would you go/how much would you endure for the sake of your passion/art and for it to be recognised by others?

All in all, this is a competent thriller that's also full of a surprising amount of sapphic spice and plenty of twists once the action escalates. Worth a read but there's probably better thrillers out there.

Many thanks to Oneworld Publications and NetGalley for providing me with a digital review copy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, and Violence

Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Excrement, and Vomit