Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

13 reviews

torturedreadersdept's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Dysphoria, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Death of parent, Medical content, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Car accident, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Moderate: Cultural appropriation

Minor: Cancer, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

babonkadonkas's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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

5.0

OMG

i was kind of annoyed when sir owen was killed bc i feel like i've read a million murder cover ups, but this was SO well done, amazing ending, absolutely gut wrenching, hated all the characters tbh i feel like you meet every one of these ppl on the left lmao. also robert lemoine is elon musk

such an enjoyable read, i need to go read everything else eleanor has written ok bye

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Car accident, Gaslighting, Murder, Vomit, Grief, Gun violence, and Misogyny

qqjj's review

adventurous dark tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Torture, Vomit, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Bullying, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

emelye's review

challenging dark tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief and Violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

teaganme's review

adventurous challenging dark funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.75

A bit heavy, but mostly in all the right ways. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Car accident, Gaslighting, Drug use, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Death, Classism, and Animal death

aj_mooney's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Drug use, and Gaslighting

themorsecode's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense 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

4.25

A pageturner. Liked the multi perspective approach and there was some spiky satire on all sides, ending didn't quite land for me but I was hooked to the last page

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit, Murder, Death, Violence, Cursing, Drug use, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Car accident

velvet_young's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Gaslighting, Stalking, Murder, Gun violence, and Toxic friendship

obiterocelot's review

dark mysterious 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

4.25

Read if you love: New Zealand accents, the Fox and Ferret bar, gardening, a likeable bad guy, bunkers, hippy communes, not having a clue what is going to happen, young people problems, awkward social relationships, Marxist manifestos, descriptive prose, drone strikes, environmental terrorism.

Avoid if you love: cosy stories about gardening, fast paced and action packed thrillers, happy endings, stories without trigger warnings, hooking up with good guys, conspiracy theorists being wrong.
—————

Ok, but what an ending. And everything really happens in the final 5%! 
The way the mystery unfolds is with one giant twist after another until it feels like you are reading a completely different book than the one you picked up. In the best way possible.
I would never have expected the story to have ended in a complete TPK. Kind of fitting given the environmental themes in the stories. Everyone will go down together.
And I’d put money on that being fully intentional. She is an intelligent woman, Eleanor Catton. Between this and the Luminaries, I’ll pick up whatever she writers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Death, and Murder

beccaand's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, and Death

Moderate: Gaslighting, Drug use, and Gun violence

Minor: Vomit