Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

7 reviews

nuthatch428's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Colonisation, Blood, Gore, Murder, Medical content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Excrement, Vomit, Alcohol, Animal death, Infidelity, Rape, and Grief

Minor: Child death, Addiction, Torture, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Pregnancy, and Mental illness

singalana's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

Kirjan luettuani minulle jäi hieman kaksijakoiset fiilikset, vaikka kokemus jäi selvästi plussan puolelle. Kirjan genreä on hieman vaikea kuvailla: kirjan tapahtumat sijoittuvat 1600-luvulle, ja siinä on murhamysteerin ja jopa kauhun elementtejä. Kirjassa seuraamme enimmäkseen Arent-nimistä miestä, joka astuu laivaan suojellakseen ystäväänsä, jota ollaan kuljettamassa Amsterdamiin tuomittavaksi. Toinen päähenkilöistä on kenraalikuvernöörin vaimo Sara. Henkilöhahmoja on paljon, mutta heillä on mielenkiintoiset persoonallisuudet ja motiivit. 

Kirjassa seurataan seitsemän laivan saattuetta, joka lähtee Bataviasta kohti Amsterdamia mukanaan maustelasti. Pian alkaa tapahtua pelottavia asioita, ja herää epäilys siitä seilaako paholainen heidän mukanaan? 

Kirja piti hyvin otteessaan alusta loppuun saakka. Pidin kirjoitustyylistä, ja lyhyet luvut koukuttivat lukemaan aina seuraavan. Myös henkilöhahmot olivat mielenkiintoisia, ja heistä paljastui koko ajan lisää. Kirja oli jännittävä, eikä loppuratkaisua ole helppo arvata. 

Spoilereita! 
Loppuratkaisusta puheen ollen, Drechtin miesten suunnitelmat kirjan lopussa olivat vastenmielisiä, ja mietin olisiko ollut parempi jättää se kohta lukijan mielikuvituksen varaan. Koska kirjassa on leikitelty yliluonnollisen mahdollisuudella, loppuratkaisu tuntuu lässähtää hieman. Lisäksi syyllisen paljastuttua hahmojen tulevaisuudensuunnitelmat tuntuvat ehkä hieman liiankin näppärältä.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Colonisation, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Blood

Minor: Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Rape, Confinement, Infertility, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Murder, Child death, Cursing, and Death of parent

tallbox's review

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexism, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Colonisation, Child death, and Vomit

Minor: Pregnancy

shinsoukoku's review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Minor: Excrement, Child abuse, Vomit, Child death, War, Animal death, Confinement, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

set in the medieval era, there is a brief scene of sara having to fulfill her "obligations" with her abusive husband and multiple threats of assault leading up to a character suggesting they, the men, use the women of the ship as they wish, willing or not.

maddiebusick's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.0

Not bad, lots of twists and turns but I felt it dragged on a little bit which took away from the thrill and suspense of a murder mystery

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Confinement, Excrement, Gaslighting, Gore, Medical content, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Child death, Colonisation, War, Vomit, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, and Gun violence

maiagaia's review against another edition

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

2.25

Like The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, this book has extremely engaging, compulsively readable prose. I tore through both in only a few days despite their length. The issue is that both have really bad endings. Like book-ruining bad.
The Devil and the Dark Water commits what is, to me, a cardinal sin: a POV character lied to the reader with their own thoughts.

Creesjie is the POV character when she finds the governor general's body. She panics and cries and is frightened in the dark. We find out later that she planned the whole thing and planted a fake murder weapon in the middle of that scene. But we don't see it because it would ruin the mystery. And that's the only reason. It makes zero sense.

There are also multiple instances of chapters ending with a random description of something that the character didn't see. These chapters are written in 3rd person limited, so the random omnipotence is clunky.
The reveal of the twist was bad enough , but the final scene was the expired whipped cream on this shit sundae. We have two well-developed, stubborn characters who do a total about face in the last five pages.

Arent and Sara are both set up as having strict, particular views on morality, yet at the end, they are suddenly willing to look past the hundreds of deaths Creesjie and Pipps caused??? I could maybe buy it if given more time, but 5 pages is NOT enough.

 
At this point, I'm not sure I'll be reading from this author again. He has a wonderful writing style, but the endings are just unforgivable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Violence

Moderate: Genocide, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: War, Vomit, Slavery, Child death, Colonisation, and Confinement

annimsal's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Pidin edellisen Evelynin seitsemän kuolemaa -kirjan kerrontakikkailusta ja yllätyskäänteistä, ja odotin tältä ehkä liikaa jotain vastaavaa. Tarina osoittautui kuitenkin perinteisemmäksi Sherlock-henkiseksi mysteeriksi. Ei ehkä ihan oma juttuni, vaikka fiktiivinen 1600-luvun kauppalaiva, jossa paholainen (ehkä) vaanii matkustajia, olikin ihan jännä suljettu ympäristö.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Child death, and Domestic abuse