Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

18 reviews

lancemama's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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: Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Torture, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Body horror, Violence, Child death, Bullying, Alcoholism, Gore, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Genocide, Grief, Alcohol, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

sleepyshelves's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Grief, Torture, Blood, Murder, Violence, Classism, Stalking, Death, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, and Medical trauma

Minor: Car accident

atomicbritt's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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: Gore, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Gun violence, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

5.0

I totally get that this book isn't for everyone. It's a gore-filled, violent, dense book that has prose that often twists into itself so often that I had to keep going back to see what I missed. But I loved it. I honestly think it's better than My Heart Is A Chainsaw--something about Jade and her crew being grown up and them dealing with this trauma and violence that is at the heart of the American West and the small towns just hit right. And I didn't know if I would love the multiple character POV, but it worked so well. It also had these moments of dark humor that made me chuckle amongst the horror that I just loved (Jade being indignant about a slahser using a gun was very good). I am not particularly familiar with slasher movies (I can read gore, but I can't watch it), but that didn't really turn me off anything in this book. 

My only criticism is that I felt that the fantastical element was as seamlessly integrated into the plot as it was in the last one. But I'm so excited for the third book in this series it's been so good so far. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, Mental illness, Torture, Body horror, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Self harm, and Animal death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

mgsl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

saint_eleanor's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Okay i love stephen graham jones with all my heart but this book was sooo hard to read. There are so many characters to keep track of and so many different time jumps and stuff but all in all i f*cking love how he writes you have to work so hard. The only thing that pisses me off is i have so many questions still like

why did theo mondragon go on the rampage in the first book? Why did cinn kill ginger? Who really was dm south?? Is stacey graves gonna come back??

but we are still waiting on a third. 

[@canine_gambling on ig if u wanna discuss]

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Child abuse and Sexual harassment

perthalus's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

The writer tries way to hard to make his main character an iconic badass horror protagonist to the point where it becomes eye-rolling.  Instead of focusing on character dynamics and relationships you just get mostly pointless snapshots of random character’s lives before they die a few pages after.

The antagonist somehow also feels incredibly undercooked despite the book being 500 pages long, and the prose is so confusing at times that I honestly can’t tell what is where and how something is happening. You think you’re in one place and then bam you’re on the opposite side of where you thought you were.

Made me miss the first book, which wasn’t too great in the first place.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Grief, Violence, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Cursing and Car accident

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Police brutality, and Emotional abuse

jayjm94's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

As perfect a book as I’ve ever read. It had everything: horror references, incredibly adept women, strange teenagers, a small town on the water, a snowstorm, and some light supernatural content. an absolute gem by SGJ, almost certainly my best book of the year (close 2nd being my heart is a chainsaw) cannot wait for the 3rd!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Body horror, and Drug use

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Car accident, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Animal death, and Incest

juliana18's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, and Torture

Minor: Pedophilia

abutchstargazer's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Stalking

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, and Child death