Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl

68 reviews

nella_allen's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny sad 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content and Toxic relationship

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Torture, Dementia, Death of parent, and Alcohol

sallytiffany's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Took me a long time since I don’t listen to audio books much but incredibly well done. I was enamored the entire time. Have never loved a vampire story more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Blood, Cannibalism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

behindherpages's review against another edition

funny medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, and Gaslighting

mfrisk's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful reflective 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

I liked this book overall. The characters had interesting backstories and built complex friendships with each other. I enjoyed learning new rules that applied in this world in terms of vampire lore and abilities. I think the only thing I didn’t love was the insta love storyline and the ending feeling a bit rushed but I thought otherwise this was a great YA read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Abandonment

nicole_cries_alot's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

2.5

Slightly violent, very quick ending. It felt like it was all build up to one event that was over way too quickly. 
LGBTQ rep is always a plus though and the rules of the vampires were interesting in this book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Abandonment

knitterscasket's review against another edition

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Violence

sharron_joy_reads's review against another edition

dark funny 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? It's complicated

4.25

Holly has been a vampire for 30yrs, turned by the boy who told her he loved her then discarded her when he got bored. Cursed to spend eternity tied to him as a 16yr old with hair that will forever be crimped she lives a lonely existence. Ida and Rose are also victims of Elton they have a plan to break their link with him and save his new target, Parker. 

This was the YA Book Club 2023 book for April. 

This is an excellent vampire book, it is YA but at the older end of that bracket so there are some elements of horror and gore in this. It has such an interesting take on vampire law and actually completely reverses a few of the myths. The characters are complex, mesmeric and deadly but angst ridden. There is a lot of humour amongst the carnage too and I was rooting for the girls to win. This is a story of lost girls  breaking free of their bondage, finding a family and a reason to live forever, loved it ! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Abandonment

emmylux7's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful medium-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? Yes

4.75

a group of vamp girls teaming up to kill their abusive ex. say less. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual content, Vomit, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

mx_virg's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-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? Yes

3.0

I loved the premise and really wanted to like this book. And the base elements are there. I liked the characters, the way they come together, how the plot progresses. I like that a big part of the book focuses on female friendships. I enjoyed reading it, but I don't think much will stick with me for long.

The world building is really lacking here. How can vampires just carelessly go through the world, killing people left and right, in this day and age? The number of people they kill to feed on isn't small, and yet it's never really a concern. Nothing really is, aside from the main villain. We're given just enough to understand why things have to happen the way they do, nothing more. The vampire thing feels more like a b-plot, we're not given enough info and I wasn't that invested or interested when vampiry stuff happened as a result.

The romance started out cute, but became bland from the half-way point. And even though I liked the ending, the twists felt unnecessary and created if not plot holes, at least more questions that we won't get answers to (because we're given so little info to begin with). The writing didn't help. It wasn't bad, but didn't pull me in either.

So yeah, it's a "meh" read for me, but one I still enjoyed. I'd love to read a book on how our heroines carve a life for themselves, together, from here on out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Physical abuse, Sexism, Grief, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Misogyny, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

longlost's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

mmm. i really wanted to like this book. like many other reviewers i was sold on the Sapphic Vampire Revenge Story premise and while there were parts of the book that really spoke to me and made me feel like it was worth reading, the parts that bothered me were.... a bit too Much to gloss over in favour of what i did like about it. 

the good: hartl's brand of dark humour used to tell this story made it feel very engaging to me, but that's very much personal taste. i liked the characters - the core vampire trio (later quartet) were easy to love for their quirks and i found what we did learn about their backstories and histories to be genuinely interesting and at times heartbreaking. holly's issues w/ her mother also really spoke to me when they did become front and centre, and i liked

the resolution with her mother in their final scene together.

ive never really been that invested in vampire stories so im going into this world with the basics of vampire knowledge, but i really enjoyed the work hartl put into worldbuilding regarding the vampire lore. when i picked up the book to continue reading i was as much interested in seeing where the characters would go next as in how the world and the rules behind vampirism would be unraveled. which sucks because the stuff im going to talk about next really ruined whatever good aspects those parts had.

the bad (and the Ugly): so. the entire premise of the book is the three girls who were coerced by the main villain - a vampire creep who preys on vulnerable, isolated teenagers - teaming up to kill him so he can't ensnare anymore victims. and then we spend the entire book developing a romance between holly and parker of which the inherent weirdness of it is never really acknowledged ? like yea, we know that holly genuinely cares because we're reading things from her point of view and there's a lot of emphasis on how being Turned pauses you at that point in time meaning that holly is Technically still 16 but. it is just, not that simple ? she's been existing for like 30 years and parker is. a teenager. maybe there could have been ways to approach it well but here it just felt.... extremely brushed over despite a major plot point of the story being how the villain did similar things to the main character & her friends. the romance felt kinda bland too but tbf i was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt until the out of nowhere underage sex scene which very nearly made the book a DNF for me but there wasnt much of the story left at that point and i wanted to keep to my rule about having read a book in full before writing an in-depth review like this and i felt like these issues were glaring enough that they needed to be discussed in context of the story which is. as explained, never really addressed by the author other than holly being like "oh no if we date parker will eventually grow old and die" which. doesn't even begin to address the juxtaposition between the entire revenge plot and holly and parker's relationship. the overall ending seems to be contentious from reading other reviews here but tbh at that point id disengaged emotionally so i dont have any real thoughts on that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Dementia, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Gun violence, and Mass/school shootings