Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse

4 reviews

billorwill's review

challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

beate251's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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

5.0

"I just want some stability in my life. I want a house with four front windows and two hanging baskets and a garden where I can grow things. A bigger lawn for Tink. And a better job. And a book deal. It’s not too much to ask, is it?"

Rhiannon, 27, lives with her cheating boyfriend Craig and Chihuahua Tink. She hates her job and has anger management issues stemming from deep-seated childhood trauma. In her free time, she plays with Sylvanian families, walks her little dog and kills people like the unhinged  psychopath and serial killer she is.

I have a penchant for female serial killers who go after bad men but she is actually trying to lure them in by walking around deserted alleys at night. She doesn't shy away from killing women, and she derives sexual pleasure from her bloodthirsty deeds. So I was quite uncomfortable reading her matter-of-fact diary entries about balancing her deadly shenanigans with meeting friends and pretending to be normal.

I have to say her daily kill lists - strangers who annoyed her that day by queue jumping, overcharging or other heinous crimes - are kind of relatable but after a while she makes very sweeping statements and I found myself on them twice ("Everyone who lives or works in London" and later "the entire human race").

Once she complains about people who make grammatical mistakes but says "me and Craig" instead of "Craig and I" all the time! Personally, that needled me greatly, but Rhiannon's thoughts and behaviour are at no point logical, as she admits herself. For example, absolutely everyone who manages to lock two in-flagrante rapists in a van would drive that van to the nearest police station. But not her. Oh no. She finds a much more deranged but ever so entertaining solution.

I actually felt sorry for her a few times about how utterly unhappy she seems to be. But instead of throwing her boyfriend out (she knows all about the affair) or changing her job she gets her kicks by killing people. At the end, the tally I counted was 11 people, two of them historic. That's a lot! You need a strong stomach for this book - the gory stuff often comes out of nowhere. She also swears like a whole ship full of sailors.

Despite all this I was kind of mesmerised and read this twisted, deeply gripping and darkly funny tale as fast as I could. It's brilliantly written but dare I say 100 pages too long, especially as this is only the first of five books in this series.  The cliffhanger makes me want to read the next one NOW because I must know how she gets out of the situation she is in - pregnant and just about to hack her dead lover to pieces when the doorbell goes!

"How many men does it take to tile a bathroom? One – but only if you slice him veeeeery thinly."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Miscarriage

clotalksbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

Well that was dark! Similar in style to a couple of more recent books I have read (How to Kill your family/how to kill men and get away with it), and initially I wasn't as big a fan of the writing in this one. I feel some things went a little far for my taste, and there is A LOT of sex - not necessarily a bad thing, just unexpected. 

It is darkly funny, you feel terrible for laughing. I think it depends what order you read the similar books in to be honest, as you can't help but compare. 

There are some very unexpected twists and turns which I loved, my mouth hit the floor on occasion. By the end I was hooked and will read the rest of the series.

The narrator is perfect, so I will stick to audio for the rest of the series too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture and Abortion

Minor: Animal cruelty, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

singalana's review against another edition

dark funny tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Stalking, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal cruelty, Self harm, Suicide, and Suicide attempt