Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

21 reviews

teaandbooksnuggery's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Vomit, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual content, Gaslighting, and Cursing

Minor: Animal death, Suicide, Medical trauma, and Abortion

louiepotterbook's review

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Bullying, Child death, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Gore, Misogyny, and Pedophilia

foxymoxie13's review

tense medium-paced

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

4.5

We stan a messy bisexual protagonist who believes her family is just as toxic as the ghost haunting them.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death and Abortion

cassieopeia's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Violence, Abortion, Alcohol, Death, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Gore, Animal death, Blood, Cursing, Murder, and Vomit

Moderate: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

clairebonney's review

dark tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Bullying, and Death

Moderate: Murder, Suicide, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Sexual content, and Cursing

Minor: Abortion, Animal death, and Infertility

dubious_little_creature's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

charliettea's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Diavola follows Anna and her insufferable family on a vacation in Italy. It quickly becomes apparent that the villa they are renting is not quite right. I enjoyed the mystery of this story and would have rated it five stars if not for two issues. I'll mention them here because they pertain to the content warnings I'm giving. Mild spoilers ahead. For real, it does not pertain to the mystery of the story. (Continue to my content warnings to read)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Sexual harassment

My issue #1 is that there is a cat who does not survive, and the description is pretty gruesome. My issue #2 is that there's a scene where the main character draws and shares an explicit sexual drawing of her coworkers at work, and people think she's a legend for getting back at those assholes. If reading sexual harassment get treated as some sort of awesome revenge would not be good for you, I highly encourage skipping the chapter "killer dress".

alite428's review

dark funny mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Self harm, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Gore, Death, and Violence

Minor: Abortion

venus_rising777's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death

minimicropup's review

dark funny hopeful mysterious tense 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? No

5.0

I loved how haunting this was on every level, but it wasn’t scary. It was my fav style of slow burn with gradually escalating eeriness. 

 

Energy: Unsettled. Evasive. Resentful.  

Scene: 🇮🇹 🇺🇸 Set in Tuscany, Italy, at Villa Taccola and later in Manhattan, NY

Perspective: We follow an artist working in advertising spending their vacation with their parents, brother & his new boyfriend, sister & brother-in-law, and two nieces at a Villa in Italy that their parents rented. When our main character returns home, we see the impact of the vacation on their life. 

 

🐩 Tail Wags: How we were shown the full range of family dynamics. Our uncertainty about Ana and the dangers. Caputring the ‘stranded in a foreign place’ unease as things escalate. The ending. 

 

🤔 Random Thoughts:

In the first 60% it felt like a literary fiction where we get to know the family and characters. Around 60% it was more suspenseful with a bit of cozy horror (but not entirely cozy horror either). I love both those genres, so it was a fun read for me. 

 

I loved the ending and I didn’t mind what was left to reader interpretation, but I wish I could ask the author what they think happened around some of the plot points.

 

The family felt so real. It wasn’t over-the-top personality disorders; it was more like the clashes and misunderstandings every family has maybe just dialled in a bit differently. Everyone seemed so average until they weren’t anymore. That said, omg, Nicole was SO annoying complaining about her husband and kids, but it really worked for the story. 

 

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🎬 Tale-Telling: Direct, haunting, and a little poetic. 

🤓 Reader Role: Little ghost sitting on Ana’s shoulder, watching everything unfold and getting glimpses into her thoughts and motivations.

🗺️ World-Building: Immersive, cinematic, especially in Italy but even in NYC. I want to watch this as the movie on screen that it made in my mind.

🔥 Fuel: Is the family’s concern for Ana justified? What has happened in her past? Or are they being too hard on her? Is she being too hard on them? Who or what is in the villa? And how far does its power go?

📖 Cred: Paranormal realism with some suspended disbelief unhinged moments. 

🚙 Journey: Watching a movie on a long plane ride.

 

Mood Reading Match-Up:

• Dry summer heat. Splashing in the pool. Kids laughing. Pouring wine. Chopped garlic. Skeleton key turning. Gravel driveway. Car horns honking. Rain in Manhattan. Airplane engines.  
• Vacay haunts with baggage
• Ghostly occult possession meets slow-burn contemporary fiction family drama

 

Content Heads-Up: Suicide (graphic, on page). Abortion (off page). Cat death (brief). Alcohol use. Blood, injuries, bruising. Death. Financial insecurity. Narcissism. 

 

Rep: Gay. Bisexual. Heterosexual. Cisgender. White and ambiguous Americans, peripheral Italian characters.

 

📚 Format: Library Audio

 

My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Blood and Death

Minor: Alcohol, Abortion, and Animal death