Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Vértestvérek by Ania Ahlborn

93 reviews

abbeyhuffine94's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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

3.0

I was able to guess most of the ending. And even then, I wasn't super surprised. However, I thought this book was an interesting (albeit cartoonishly overdone) look at a violently dysfunctional family and cyclical abuse and violence. Very emotionally charged and scary.
Reb was one of the most evil characters I've ever read about. Michael was one of the most infuriating. I understand he was living in horribly abusive circumstances but his cowardice irritated me throughout.
I do think this novel was extremely far fetched. I also think that horror has to have some reaches at times to make for a truly scary story. I guess if everyone was reasonable, horrible things would happen less.
One more observation: this book was way tamer in terms of graphic violence than I anticipated. On a horror scale of, say Haunting of Hill House to American Psycho (non-graphic horror to very graphic horror), it's about a 5-6.
The vibes were very cool though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual harassment, Violence, Stalking, Child death, Child abuse, Cannibalism, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Rape, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Gore, Incest, and Sexual violence

shannananahey's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Body horror, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Grief, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Rape, Stalking, Sexual violence, and Incest

Minor: Death of parent, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

amandaglowgetter's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Stalking, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, and Bullying

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, and Incest

finleyfrogreads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Child death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Stalking

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Kidnapping, Sexism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Addiction, Torture, Alcohol, and Animal death

thatbookmarkbabe's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, and Gore

Moderate: Rape

mold's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I can't think of any words to sum up how I feel about this book. I guess I'll keep it simple and say it's the best thing I've ever read. Nothing can top this, I know that for certain. 
Michael will always be in my heart. Reb will always be around the corner. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

theserendipitousreader_'s review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, Rape, Sexual violence, and Stalking

dragonbloom's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I really liked this book. The ending was a little too much for me, I suppose, whilst the foreshadowing for everything was all there... I don't see why Alice had to die, seems a little too much, felt rude.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Torture, Emotional abuse, Child death, and Confinement

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny

Minor: War

Abuse: Lots of abuse. The mother emotionally and physically abuses the family, especially the daughters. The father is less abusive, but still abusive, and certainly doesn't stop the mother. The brother abuses the main character. Alcoholism/alcohol: The main character's brother is an alcoholic. Animal Death/cruelty: Several animals are killed throughout the plot. Hunting and pets.

In the backstory chapters, Rebel kills a dog, quickly. This dog is explicitly stated to be neglected. Lauralynn keeps rabbits, one of which is killed, the others released. The rabbits were well taken care of until this point. Whilst hunting, Rebel tears the wing off a bird, dooming it to a slow, painful death.

All of these incidents come up again. Blood: It's a very violent book. Cannibalism: The family seem to eat the people they kill, and at one point there is graphic description of the MC preparing a body. Child death:

The mother kills Lauralynn.

Confinement: The family kidnap and torture girls. Incest: Incest is a running theme in the book.

The main character's adoptive sister tries to have sex with him, twice, whilst he is blatantly uncomfortable. It is fairly obvious, but the MC's love interest turns out to be his sister. Disturbing, though it never goes further than kissing in either case. Finally, the MC kisses and gropes what later turns out to be his mother's dead body, though he didn't know this at the time. It is revealed that the mother was molested by her father. The same man later molests Lauralynn.

Kidnapping: This is discovered early on, but

the main character turns out not to be blood related to the family, he was kidnapped, though he is not aware he was kidnapped until much later in the book.

The family also kidnap and torture girls before killing them. Misogyny: The family kills exclusively young girls and women. Rebel sometimes expresses misogynistic viewpoints. Necrophilia: This isn't on storygraph's list, but I feel like I should mention it.

MC is a necrophile. I don't believe he has engaged in full intercourse with corpses, but he expresses attraction to them, and at one point gropes one.

Sexual violence/rape:

Rebel rapes a woman after portraying himself as being her friend. Less violently, a woman comes onto the main character twice, after he attempts to get her to back off.

Torture: The family torture girls. Occasionally animals. War: The main character's father is a Vietnam veteran.

dannybrown59's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow the ending of this book was like a punch to my heart. Despite all the horrible things Michael did you really feel for his character. He didn't deserve what happened to him. I just wanted him to escape and move on with his life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Torture, and Violence

alvyv's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

First book i’ve read in the horror genre. It was pretty well written, and made me want to finish it till the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Cannibalism, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Pedophilia and Sexual assault