Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox

9 reviews

prairieraven's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Finished in a sitting. Good Gothic Academia vibes with some sinister magic. Pacing and Flow was a bit of a struggle after the halfway point however after finishing it made sense. I found some of the secondary characters as frustrating as the FMC did. Good character growth. Struggled to read this one without the reader warnings for myself. 

good fit for readers who enjoy historical fiction with alchemical touches, books set after WW1, FMC, a little bit of magic, books about book, manuscripts and libraries and Thier caretakers.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

pebbletown's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Had a really, really strong start but kind of floundered in the third act, with some too on-the-nose villainous speeches and an anti-climactic big reveal. (I wanted more of the nun, considering she’s the opener to the book!!) But still a really cool and atmospheric read; enjoyed the unreliable narrator (though did not understand 90% of her choices)— also fun and spooky to read a book from the perspective of someone being actively attic-wifed.

I gotta say I did not see the appeal of Arthur at any point of the book—which makes you kind of lose touch with Ivy who falls for him so hook, line, and sinker. Yes for sure let’s get married, charismatic near stranger of local aristocracy who has a mysterious family and a weird fascination with my big haunted library!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Blood, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Ableism, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: War

reallyrosalie's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Blood, and Murder

yruss972's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

lktx's review

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? It's complicated

3.5

Was very slow until about 60%, then proceeded more quickly. The confusion around the mystery is a little over the top (why didn't they just *tell* her and the romantic relationship felt forced and the big relationship "remember now?" at the end felt unearned. The author could have dropped more hints so it was less of an unnecessary addition.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Violence and Blood

Minor: War

morethanmylupus's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.0

The premise of this book had a lot of potential, but the story never quite got there. The big reveal felt far-fetched and I didn't feel like we got enough character development on any of the characters to feel invested.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Gaslighting

the_crooked_neighbor's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-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

1.5

This book stressed me out. I wish the description more accurately portrayed what the book would be about and I wish it had trigger warnings. I take part of the blame for not checking more thoroughly beforehand. If you like mysteries with psych horror elements you might like this. If you saw this and thought, "I love books about books," take a strong pass.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Dementia, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, Sexual content, Torture, Medical content, and Medical trauma

A heavy focus of this book is

memory loss. As we see the story through the eyes of the person with memory loss, it builds a tense sense of anxiety as we see her struggling to confront the fact that she is slowly losing her mind. Proceed with caution if loss of autonomy and sense of self will trigger you.

displacedcactus's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

This book had all of the basic components for a Gothic: 

• Orphaned young woman of meager financial means.  
• Crumbling manor on the moors.  
• Servants who know more than they're letting on.  
• A handsome, charming, wealthy suitor who is definitely up to no good but the heroine doesn't notice.  
• A rough, gruff man of meager financial means who is clearly soft on the heroine but she doesn't notice.  
• Spooky shenanigans.

You might think that surely, the author would do some interesting things with these tropes and archetypes, this being 2023 and the Gothic being a well-worn genre. But no. Everything basically turns out how you would probably expect it to if you have ever read a Gothic or watched a Gothic movie.

I was cruising right along with this book, not really loving it but not disliking it enough to DNF, and hoping it would maybe surprise me in the end, but then at around 80% in it just got so over-the-top, the writing seemed to decrease in quality, and I just got completely annoyed.

If you have never read a Gothic before, OR you enjoy the genre and specifically want a predictable version of it, you'll probably enjoy this. But if you're looking for someone to innovate or turn tropes on their head, don't bother picking this up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexism and Classism

latelygrace's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

I don’t know how I keep ending up with the weirdest books, but here we are again. What a whirlwind, and not in a good way. It has a promising concept, and took me by surprise by taking a swift left turn into an attempt at a modern gothic narrative. Then it became increasingly clear that it was written by an American who knows just enough about English aristocracy to totally misuse it and in her rush to include so many different elements and plot devices the author felt like she was alternately lost in her own story and then rushing ahead of herself. The “magic” builds up for 3/4 of the book, only to be resolved unsatisfactorily in the course of a few pages. The literary trend of dual storylines spanning history was clumsy and not fully developed. The characters of the past more literary device than developed characters though the reader is clearly supposed to feel some connection toward them. Not to mentioned the rushed romance squeezed into the last chapters. Threads that were tied off were done so too quickly and haphazardly and several others were left to dangle as the author completely shifted focus in the end. Anyway, not at all what I expected and tbh I don’t really know what to rate it so I’m going to go middle of the road again with 2.5  ⭐️ or maybe a straight 2 for  making me read the last few chapters of “romantic” nonsense. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, and Classism