Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

8 reviews

confidenterr0r's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The first quarter of the book was fantastic to me. The atmosphere and world building with the growing sense of “something isn’t quite right here” really pulled me in. That’s why I think the entire rest of the book disappointed me so much and fell flat. The 3 main characters were so very dull and dense. At first I thought it was on purpose since the

animals

are very full of personality by comparison but as the book went on…nope. They’re just dull and dense.

They’ll get major context clues that something horrible happened to the animals and they’re all just kinda like “welp. that’s wild.” and keep going. It took them until pretty late story to even fully recognize they’d been brought there against their will, like come on. I didn’t feel like any of the MCs truly acknowledged how their favorite little book was written and either continued idolizing it or just kinda…didn’t say much about it until the very end when Eamon suddenly realizes it in the final showdown with Bing for no particular reason, when he felt seemingly no remorse for the other 3 animals the whole book. By the end of the book I actually couldn’t stand Eamon with his high level plot armor and Christopher Columbus ancestry and watching him win by locking Finn in the same cage his ancestor did was infuriating. I was rooting hard for Eamon to die but that’s neither here nor there lol

I wish the entire middle of the book would’ve been cut down a bit and added more focus on the lore since that’s where the book really seemed to shine. I found the action parts became repetitive and very quickly realized

the 3 MCs were not actually in danger of dying which made that portion drag on for me. They would just run through their major injuries without much hindrance while the animals stood 5 feet away missing every shot.

I do still recommend reading this since the concept itself was unique and the storybook characters were very enjoyable and vibrant. This is definitely an Eamon hate page but I seem to be in the minority so he may not bother you as much lol. The overall story was interesting enough to deal with his mary sue-ness and where Eamon and friends fall flat the storybook characters pick up the slack (ironically).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Genocide, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, and Animal death

rivercat0338's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

The author's prose style is a lot. The story is worth pushing through if you can, however. 

I wish the owls' part was explained better, and how Gene fits in. There's no way he doesn't have some idea of what was going on if

people you take out to a "deserted" island routinely vanish

.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Blood, Colonisation, Genocide, Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Classism, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Self harm, and Torture

gondorgirl's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Confinement, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Stalking, Animal death, Self harm, and Violence

franzys_whip's review against another edition

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

kurumipanda's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Colonisation, Confinement, Self harm, and Genocide

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

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

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Cursing, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Slavery, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Animal death, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Addiction, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, and Torture

tkatt20's review against another edition

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