Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh

20 reviews

aparker89's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Classism, Gaslighting, Police brutality, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Blood, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Body shaming, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Torture

hellokatya's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

this book really took me by surprise. the twists and turns fully got me - i did not expect any of them. really good plot, not great execution. the writing style bored me at points and felt like a chore to get through. also far too many characters to keep track of, constantly had to refer back to character log to know who was being spoken of. 
overall very good book. would recommend 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Murder, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Torture, Violence, Death, and Stalking

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Misogyny, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Minor: Car accident, Mental illness, and Vomit

sophie_the_reader_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, Self harm, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Torture, Death, Violence, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Murder, Stalking, Body horror, and Alcohol

tmazzzzzi's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gaslighting, Murder, Police brutality, Death, Alcoholism, Stalking, Rape, Blood, and Car accident

theinkwyrm's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Well I enjoyed that more than I'd anticipated. I feel like the dual perspectives kept the pacing fast and compelling and the POVs were almost equally matched as far as enjoyment. While I didn't enjoy Flynn's POV quite as much as Kane's, the courtroom drama elements helped even that up. I also appreciated that while Flynn is clearly a modern day version of the hardboiled detective, he lacks for the most part (although not completely) the misogyny that is generally typical of that trope. The only thing that you really have to suspend your disbelief for (or at least I did) was that Kane is not only a psycopathic and sociopathic serial killer but that he also has a rare disorder that means he can't feel pain (which is mentioned pretty early on), which is honestly just kind of overkill if you ask me. But I still enjoyed his POV enough that it didn't bother me enough to want to stop reading. Overall, a pretty solid thriller that you can enjoy without having read the first few books in the series.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death

ramblingreader65's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-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

This book was INCREDIBLE! Every time I thought I had figured out the twist, I was wrong. Love that in a thriller. This has a very criminal minds vibe!

I didn't realize this was book 4 in a series but it was easy to jump in and understand the characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Murder, Gun violence, Gore, Death, and Blood

siniandi's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

Within the thriller category, this is one of the best there is right now. It is fast paced and really engaging; one of those books you read within two days, because you can't really bring yourself to stop reading. The plot was developed quite well and I didn't see the final twists coming at all! The book fails the Bechtel test, but those looking for a tense thriller with good entertainment value will be happy with this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Police brutality, Violence, Torture, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Gore, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Homophobia, and Rape

martin27's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

To be honest I don’t know what made me pick up this one. It’s not what I normally read. I prefer character driven stories, usually. This is… not that. But more than just being plot-driven, the characters are all very bland. They’re basically indistinguishable from one another. They all speak the same way and do the same things. By far the characters I liked the most were Harper and Delaney, but not for anything unique or interesting they did as much as having literally even one defining characteristic to set them apart from the other characters (that trait is that they’re women, by the way. That’s the only thing that makes them different from everyone else in any way.). 

There were a few good twists, the actual mystery element was fine. The pacing is… odd. The whole book takes place during one week, but it really doesn’t feel that way when reading. The first half especially dragged, but it picked up after that. 

If you like crime dramas, you’ll probably get more out of this than I did. I can’t fault it for being a genre I just generally don’t care for. But I do wish that the characters had been a bit more defined and that the pacing made more sense. It also alternates between first and third person pov, which was… not my favorite choice. Eddie’s perspective is so bland that writing it in first person doesn’t add anything to the story, and Kane’s isn’t special enough to warrant a change in  the pov.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Outing and Ableism

Minor: Rape

mina_m's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Blood

greenglass67's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Pretty good book! It feels like an episode of Criminal Minds. It's a pretty court-heavy crime drama, but the pacing and other elements of the story keep it from getting boring. There are a lot of layers to the story and the crime involved and a few minor plot twists that I didn't see coming. It does take a bit to really get going, but I still enjoyed it. I think this book is part of a series, but I read it as a standalone and didn't have any trouble understanding it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Blood, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Sexual violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Gun violence, and Medical content

Minor: Homophobia