Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

297 reviews

mmc_librarian's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Grief, Physical abuse, Animal death, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual harassment, Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, and Misogyny

Minor: Ableism

nightstitch96's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Domestic abuse, Animal death, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Pregnancy, Violence, and Murder

lunar_power's review against another edition

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

astridrv's review against another edition

As with Migrations, it took me a few chapters to get into the voice - something about the overtly rebelious tone always initially irks me. And then, somehow, magic happens: a scene, a paragraph, an image of utter awareness and connection to the natural world, a burst of intense emotion, and I'm hooked. Can't stop reading. Inti, like Franny, stays with me in between pages. The writing is poetic as fuck, and yes, the story could be more restrained, less dramatic. But so what? We are alive in this raw rare miracle and Charlotte McConaghy not only gets that but also shares it on an instinctive level. She might say, from her wild parts to ours.

That said, I have issues with the way the theme of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and PTSD was portrayed in here. It feels unnuanced, and one character especially felt like a metaphorical device at times more than a person. I'm increasingly upset about how their arc ends. In attempting to do three things at once, I feel like this book was mostly successful as an eco-fiction work (although I raised my eyebrow at

giving birth in a snowy forest

), rather unconvincing as a murder mystery, and widely immature as a commentary on misogynistic violence and PTSD.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Moderate: Blood, Murder, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Misogyny

Minor: Grief, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

alexandriatp's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative mysterious tense fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death, and Animal death

Minor: Blood, Death of parent, and Drug use

neni's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Gore, Death, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Cursing, Animal death, Blood, Dementia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

keeganlee's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Animal death, Death, Pregnancy, and Rape

jjb21's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

This could have been 3 stars if things had gone a different way. The writing style was quite engaging and fluent. But it was a fairly low-key plot, til the end. Maybe I shouldn’t demand so much believability from books, but it was another that felt ungrounded in reality!

For example, the ending was just fckin crazy.

It also didn’t feel very Scottish at all, which was a shame

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Pregnancy

labricoleuse's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

I loved this book until it began to strain credulity too far. I’ll probably try another book by this author in the hopes that she reins in the tendency to jump all the sharks, because the conservationist thriller is a genre hybrid I’m interested in. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, Physical abuse, Animal death, and Gore

clemireads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, and Emotional abuse