Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

188 reviews

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, Sexual content, Abandonment, Ableism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Bullying, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

Minor: Lesbophobia, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Racism, and Transphobia

cosmo_naut's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

First off: I am not a big mystery/thriller reader. It's not really my thing, so this will colour my preception of the book.
I read this book in one night, in the midst of exam season, because I just had to know that I was right with my predictions and guesses. I liked it in general and I had a good time reading it.
I don't think the prose will be to everyone's taste. It's supposed to be dark academia, so the book is littered with literary references that occasionally are rewarding to understand, but often seem very piled on. I did appreciate some of the meta-level a few of those discussions had. The plot was quite predictable (even for a newbie like me) and I could guess the plot twist pretty early on. I didn't really mind the tropy-ness of the book but I've seen some other reviewers complain about it. The ending seemed really rushed which was a bit disappointing because the build up of the tension was really good. I would have loved to spend more time on the aftermath of everything that happened. Instead, it feels like it was brushed off. The main character is 18 and this book being a mystery and Young Adult, I didn't mind her making a couple of stupid decisions - and in the grand scheme of things her decisions did make sense. The side characters sadly fell a bit flat. If the book had been 50, or even 100, pages longer, I think there would be the space to flesh out these characters as well as the ending more.
Whatever the technical issues with the book may be: I had a good time reading it. I would definitely recommend checking the content warnings before reading it - there's some pretty heavy things in here.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Murder

kshertz's review

challenging dark mysterious medium-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

3.75

It was an interesting read. I did not go into it knowing very much. I really enjoyed the beginning in the premise that set up about unreliable narrators and trying to figure out what’s going on with these two girls. Also trying to figure out what happened with Alex. But it jumps around a lot which can make it hard to follow. There’s animal cruelty for seemingly no reason. I don’t fully connect with the characters and don’t really care what ended up happening to them so I can’t really recommend it. I’m not really loving that it seems to say killing people is so awesome. Some other review said “sorry, killing is not supposed to be a girl boss move” and that’s exactly how I feel too. It’s hard to get behind a message that feels like “lesbians are clearly all psychopaths”. I hope that’s not the intent. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, and Gore

shapesandcolours's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Body horror, and Eating disorder

takarakei's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I wished this was more dark academia, which to me is a critique of academic institutions. I didn't really feel like this book critiqued boarding schools - it just talked about the dark history of this particular one. It's kinda hard to say a lot more about this book without spoilers because it's very mysterious. Definitely there's a lot of 'you don't know who to trust'. Sapphic. I think there was a lot of potential here, but it didn't quite hit it out of the park for me. I'm also not a thriller person so take that how you will, but I have read other YA thrillers that I liked more.

In the end there not being any magic was not where I wanted it to go. But I guess it's not fantasy tagged so maybe that was the giveaway? But 'witchcraft' is literally also used in the description, so...

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic friendship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, and Drug use

Minor: Racism, Eating disorder, and Sexual content

I had to skip a whole chapter cause of TW: animal death, so... yeah (explicit scenes of hunting)

ada_rosales's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Animal death, Death, and Murder

zoeelora's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Violence, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Gore, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Stalking, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

darquedreamer's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.25

The story was not what I expected. It was like Mean Girls meets Riverdale meets The Craft. It lagged in some places, but still kept my interest. There was a little bit of predictability and some twists and turns I didn't see coming. It was worth a read, but I wish it had been a little more dark, exciting, and witchcraft fueled. 

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Murder, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Mental illness, and Toxic friendship

peachani's review against another edition

dark tense 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? Yes

2.5

You should probably just read The Secret History instead...

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Murder, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Gun violence, and Mental illness

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Suicide, Alcohol, Child abuse, Classism, Fatphobia, Gore, Lesbophobia, Outing, Racism, Sexual content, and Vomit

evhanson's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Violence, Hate crime, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Abandonment, and Sexual content