Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse

7 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

frogggirl2's review

dark funny fast-paced

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

3.0

This serial killer premise is unoriginal, there's too much explanation for why she is the way she is, and the narrative voice is deeply unpleasant.  The excessively short chapters, journal entry style, daily minutae, boyfriend drama, and catty tone make this feel like an evil Bridget Jones.

This book just keeps doing the same things over and over, and her narrative voice doesn't change, so it's just really tiring to read this un-pc, fat phobic, agist, condescending, judgemental POV for 450 pages.

She tells so many unnecessary lies, and it's frustratingly ludicrous that she wouldn't get called on them.  Especially when she's lying to a journalist - why make up a lie that you could easily disprove with a google search?  The book letting the character get away with this undermines the believability of the book overall.

I wanted to like this - it's occasionally funny, and she's mostly hunting rapists and pedophiles so there's a justified revenge element. Ultimately, although it was a quick, easy read, there was nothing memorable here, and it wasn't as funny as it was grating and unrealistic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

bees_knees735's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

This was such a weird, fun read. Rhiannon is bad but in a way you can’t help but find kinda great and the voice of the whole thing is so engaging I read it in a couple of days. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

emmalouisereads's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

4.5

This was a lot of fun. 

If you liked how to kill your family, give this a go as I think it’s better. It’s certainly darker.

It definitely does feel like Bridget Jones’ serial killer diary. I’m looking forward to reading the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Talk about weight and dieting

librariangeorgia's review

dark funny 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

3.5

I actually got recommended this book by a staff member at Waterstones as I’d enjoyed HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY by Bella Mackie. 

 

This is book 1 in the Sweet Pea series. 

 

I really enjoyed this book. I can see the similarities to HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY. 

 

This follows the perspective of a serial killer, as opposed to the victim or detective. Even though it’s fiction, I actually found it so interesting seeing their view of events - which actually turned out not to be overly exciting. 

 

The first chapter was so graphic and disturbing that it actually made me more intrigued. This does actually continue throughout the book… 

 

My favourite bit was the kill list at the start of each day - most of them being minor reasons like the fact that she hates people. The fact that I would agree with a lot of the points she made actually disturbed me - am I a psychopath?? 

 

Though the ending was left on a cliffhanger and did make me curious as to what happens next, I’m not sure that I’ll be in a rush to pick up the next book. 

 

If you liked HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY, I recommend giving this one a go! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

Minor: Cancer, Child death, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

amberinbookland's review

funny fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Death of parent, and Murder