Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

It Will Only Hurt for a Moment by Delilah S. Dawson

8 reviews

the_vegan_bookworm's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A really solid horror story about gender, patriarchal roles and gender-based violence in intimate relationships. The ending felt a little bit underwhelming at parts, but I think the overall story felt well developed and emotionally compelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse and Infidelity

sausome's review

dark medium-paced

1.5

 1.5/5 stars - Ugh, idk if I hated this book, or if it all just made me so angry that reading it was an awful experience, or if all the characters were awful, or the fact that there are GRAPHIC and BRUTAL rape scenes in multiples. I ended up swiping past the pages of Emily Engle's POV b/c they were so graphic and horrible. There is also no resolution in this book, so if you need that to feel okay about horrible stories, this is a pass for you! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

alexisgarcia's review

dark mysterious 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

1.0

the more i think about this book, the more mad i get. the only good character in this was ingrid (except for what she did to the young kid (i forgot his name and already returned this to the library)). 

the large amount of detailed descriptions of

rape

were completely unnecessary imo. same thing with the random

animal cruelty which was never explained

so many crazy things happened with exactly 0 explanations

who killed all of the artists, who killed the animals and why, how the nails play into this, how the glass appeared in the clay, etc. i could go on and on

. it left me wondering what the point of including it even was. 

also don’t get me started on the ending. it was so out of left field and unsatisfying. it felt like she couldn’t figure out a way to wrap up all of the different plot points so she decided to go with something that had nothing to do with the entire book. 

i really really liked bloom so this felt like such a letdown. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

lv_'s review

dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This book kept me turning the page but I was ultimately pretty disappointed with the ending. No follow through on what became of other characters and I think

Kyle appearing right at the end was just…unnecessary

. I think the premise was good and I still enjoyed it but it came up lacking. 

Another thing, there were a lot of words in the book used that felt like the author just pulled them out of a thesaurus. Took me out of the story every time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Drug use, Rape, Self harm, and Stalking

sierramatice's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Medical trauma

mafaichney's review

challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

beesbookhaunts's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

We follow Sarah as she joins a remote artists’ retreat after leaving an abusive relationship. She discovers that the old mansion everyone is forbidden from entering has secrets of its own. 

This book is A Lot. Each character has an extreme personality, verging into caricature territory. There’s a misogynistic man who expects Sarah to clean up after him, a goth girl who wears only black and takes morbid pictures, a costume designer who doesn’t wear modern clothing-and more. The descriptions  of these characters provides levity as Sarah discovers the extremely dark past of the resort, and unpacks her own abusive relationship. These details are much darker and upsetting than the rest of the book, which made me appreciate the light-hearted sections.

The contrast was sometimes quite jarring, and the first detailed description of sexual assault caught me off guard.

 

Overall I enjoyed it, but it felt long and sometimes repetitive. I’ve attached trigger warnings so please check them before picking this up! 

Thanks to the publisher, I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review. 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Misogyny, Medical content, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Minor: Gore

jerichamacie's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I really enjoyed the first half of the book, but the ending really soured it for me. It was such a slow burn then suddenly all the action is crammed into the last 20 pages. A lot of things never make sense or just didn't need to happen at all. 

The eerie woodland gothic vibe was great, the main character was kind of insufferable and judgey. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Miscarriage, and Abortion