Reviews tagging 'Gore'

I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells

18 reviews

phantastic's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Gore, Mental illness, and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Minor: Ableism and Self harm

booksofautumn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Violence, Body horror, Death, Torture, and Bullying

sexualedward's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death, Cannibalism, Medical content, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Stalking, Sexual violence, Cursing, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual assault

Minor: Alcohol, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Torture, Ableism, and Addiction

cassnbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

really loved the start of this book but then the whole demon, supernatural aspect kind of through me for a loop in a weird way. definitely found myself wanting to see it through, though. fun, fast read! don’t know if I’d continue the series, but I enjoyed it for what it was. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Blood, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, and Murder

its_kievan's review

dark fast-paced

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

2.0

I think this book would have been really amazing if it wasn’t written as YA. The content was definitely very adult, what with John vividly imagining murdering everyone around him, and the killer cutting out organs. But the writing style and tone fails to make the horror seem real - it feels very detached and unemotional. Maybe this is on purpose, given that the main character is a sociopath, but there are ways to write an un-empathetic character that don’t leave me feeling so bored.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gore

ksm's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Death, and Body horror

monniebiloney's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Its been a while since I've finished this book (I had to get the last couple of books in the series via Inter-island Library loan) and to this day, I vividly remember the Climax of this book. It was so good. "Its My Turn" 

All the books in the John Cleaver series are amazing, and THEY ALL HAVE ENDINGS. basically, the author knows how to write a well-contained book. The books don't end on cliffhangers, everything in the book is resolved in the book it is brought up. The MC hunts 'serial killers', so as long as 'serial killers' exist, the books can go on.  

I don't know if this book counts as a horror or not, cuz you don't feel fear when reading these books. They are thrillers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Violence, Murder, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Terminal illness, and Stalking

Minor: Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Cannibalism

I cried when

the serial killer

died. I loved him, he was so nice.

The 'Serial Killer' wasn't human, or rather, was no longer human. What the blessed/cursed are is not totally explained in the first book, but future books go into detail on that. The 'magic' in these books is really nice, and I love how the MC doesn't have any super powers.

elly29's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

This is certainly an interesting premise: a sociopath who fights against his desire to become a serial killer, and who instead uses his knowledge to solve a string of murders. 

This felt like a first novel, definitely. I listened to the version John Allen Nelson narrates. (Apparently, Kirby Heyborne's version is supposed to be really good.) I was turned off in the first few chapters, because Nelson's narration was gratingly similar to Will Wheaton's narration of "Ready Player One," which I loathed (I also loathed the writing). The books have in common a whiny, angry, angsty teenage boy who hates the world around him. And, they also have some mary-sue levels of self-control and self-discipline.

But, things took a turn, and here be spoilers.

I didn't realize that this book had

an element or fantasy to it, ie the murderer is a demon

. So, that was a fun surprise. Shame on me for going purely on my friend's recommendation and not reading the synopsis. Had the book not had some level of the fantastical to it, I think I would've liked it a lot less. I could chew on something other than the main character's one-dimensionality.

I think a book like this is important in that it really gets inside the head of a sociopath (and perhaps if one is a sociopath, it signals what one should not do, such as not stalk the girl you have a crush on). Again, interesting premise. Rather creepy.

Oh, and an early scene describes in-detail the process of embalming in a mortuary. I had to skip over a lot of that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, Gore, Domestic abuse, Death, and Animal cruelty