Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

19 reviews

katelarson's review

slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Torture, and Sexism

Minor: Sexual violence and Sexual harassment

saffire_sky'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Misogyny

Minor: Death, Sexual content, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

lemface's review

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? No

2.0

There's way too many characters to keep track of. There's a fair few things that are presented as big reveals that go nowhere, and bug important things that are immediately swept under the rug so it's confusing and frustrating to read.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual violence

carodonahue's review

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Colonisation, Vomit, Violence, Sexual violence, and Murder

janetriestoread's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, and War

Minor: Vomit

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

calliereece's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Yes. Read it. Now.

If you haven't read The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, I also highly recommend that novel but it may be slightly more confusing than this one. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, and Rape

literalottie's review against another edition

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

I read Stuart Turton's previous book, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, a couple of years back, and found that the ending let it down for me (purely a matter of personal taste, it has a twist that didn't work for me but that I know a lot of other people love). However, I was still impressed by the ambitious and unique concept, and when I read the synopsis of The Devil and the Dark Water I found it also had an exciting premise (helped by the fact that it is heavily reminiscent of Return of the Obra Dinn, one of my favourite video games which also happens to feature a big mystery centred around a ship in a historical setting that sets out on a catastrophic journey that is plagued by potentially-supernatural happenings). So, I was more than willing to give the author another chance. And I'm glad that I did, because this was a really good mystery.

The setting of this book is executed brilliantly - you can really feel the growing tension on the ship as the rumours of a devil grow and become more frantic. The characters are all also really well written - I particularly really enjoyed the companionship that Sammy and Arent had. I also liked how Arent was the main "investigator" due to Sammy being imprisoned, it was an interesting subversion of the usual "detective & sidekick" trope.

I'm still trying to work out exactly how I feel about the ending - it was good but there were maybe a couple of details that I didn't quite pick up on throughout the book that I really should have in order for the reveals to have their intended impact. However, I will say that I did love how it kept me guessing, and how there were a number of little things that were slowly tied together as the truth came to be revealed. Overall, this was a great read, and I'll definitely be looking out for future books by Stuart Turton

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, and Vomit

Minor: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual violence

stromson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder and Death

Minor: Rape, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence