Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Credence by Penelope Douglas

114 reviews

haleydeppert's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This is a hard book to review. This book has been all the rage on BookTok right now, so I wanted to give it a try. It definitely pushed my boundaries of comfortability. Although I did thoroughly enjoy the writing of the spicy scenes, it remained hard to get past the familial relations in this book. I did not feel much romance or true love at all—more possessiveness, jealousy, and abuse—but as a book should, it kept me entertained. Three stars because it kept my attention and my eyes were glued to the page. However, character development fell extremely flat and storylines felt quite rushed. Not to mention the familial relations… weird.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Cursing, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Incest, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual harassment, Violence, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

lecheshakey's review

emotional tense 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Child abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Suicide

mama_meg's review against another edition

Not into the incest. Step Uncle or not, it’s sick and I’m not interested. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Grief, Rape, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content

farmerswife's review

dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Emotional abuse

Minor: Death of parent, Child abuse, and Grief

ali_sun's review against another edition

challenging emotional

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, and Abandonment

clindsey73's review

dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Animal death, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Cursing, Mental illness, Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

cheeserue's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

"One phone call, a coach seat, and four states later, it finally occurs to me . . . I don’t know these people."

I have mixed feelings about this one. it was entertaining enough to pull me in and want to finish reading, but also the characters made me want to scream.

Tiernan is a meekly little thing who's never felt the love of her parents, not because they weren't there, but because they are too far up each other's asses to care about the fact that they chose to have a child. this causes her to not develop a personality or any self survival skills. she ships herself off to her "uncle" whom she's never met and barely heard of.

the boys are a combination of a 40somthing year old 'step' uncle who fucks the 25 y/o  neighborhood skanks, a who psychopathic mute who immediately tried to rape her upon meeting, and Noah who I kinda liked.

I will never understand why she chose keleb, they barely spend time together and when they are in the same room he has the most red flags out of all of them. you could play a drinking game with all the shitty things he does to her; but for some reason she forgives every little thing he's done the second she finds those books.

I'll give it to Penelope, she did have me feeling a bit for him while I was reading those 'journal' entries, however his trauma and inability to speak does not cancel out how toxic he was the whole book.

that threesome scene had me sweating like a sinner in church. 

don't even get me started with the ending. automatic loss of star for pregnancy trope, not all stories need to end in a marriage and kids.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Bullying, Rape, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

dnsbrky's review

emotional funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Gaslighting, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Violence

ashburttt's review against another edition

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? Yes

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual assault, Incest, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Drug use, and Addiction

edietz22's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Grief, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Blood, Abandonment, Stalking, Sexual assault, Sexism, Physical abuse, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury