Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Pine by Francine Toon

26 reviews

eiriee's review

dark hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Alcoholism

Moderate: Animal death, Death, and Death of parent

_egg_wash's review against another edition

mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Death, and Addiction

Minor: Confinement, Blood, Drug use, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Vomit, and Cursing

libt11's review

dark mysterious sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Child abuse, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, and Kidnapping

queergoth_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Honestly, I felt this book was a little flat. I was really looking forward to this and in the end it didn't do much for me. I felt like all the interesting things were happening without the main characters ever actually being all that involved. There was a lot of scope to make this a chilling supernatural thriller but it didn't quite get there. 

<Spoiler> I also found the part where a teenager calls a ten year old a lesbian as an insulating hugely off putting. I know it's not uncommon for that to happen but it felt so out of place and made me quite uncomfortable. </Spoiler>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Grief, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Animal death, Alcohol, and Murder

Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

whatindiaread's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, Murder, Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, Death, and Death of parent

beca_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

4.25

This book is eerie and gothic, honestly I've not many other books that feel this atmospheric. I would say that this book is not marketed properly, as I was sold it as a thriller but I would say it is Gothic Horror. Not an awful lot happens in this book, but the description of Scotland  and the forest alone is brilliant. Mental health, yet not directly mentioned is dealt with within the book, as well as poverty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

Moderate: Lesbophobia

mercurialbooks's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This was disappointing because it was sold as "spine-chilling". 

It is a slightly haunting tale where the cold weather and Scottish pine woodland are atmospheric and beautiful. Unfortunately the characters do not live up to the same level of description and I didn't find myself warming to them. A father and daughter are the subjects of village gossip after the mother went missing ten years ago. The father has not thrived in that decade, he is struggling. The daughter it seems has mostly raised herself. 

There is an exciting event written on the back of the book that a reader might anticipate happens quite quickly and make this book a thriller, as it was marketed. It doesn't actually occur till around the last 100 pages. I feel removing this from the blurb in any future additions might help the pace feel more natural.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Confinement

nenaveenstra's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Not much happens in this book, except towards the end, but still it was eerie in a way that I kinda like. I did come to some conclusions very quickly that the characters seemingly didn't want to believe or were too dumb to, and I didn't love that. Also I think there could've been more focus on the magical/supernatural part of things.

I did learn some Scottish slang along the way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Bullying

Moderate: Violence and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia

emilyvictoria98's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed this book while reading it and I did find myself itching to turn the page and find out what happens next especially as we get further into the book but the more I thought about it afterwards, the more I discovered some unanswered questions which did diminish my enjoyment of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism

booksof_fern's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Death, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Animal death