Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

205 reviews

carlytenille's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

jessrad505's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

kqwalker's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

3.25

This book requires some suspension of disbelief. At times that was difficult with some of the subplots with a couple of them falling into predictable tropes and cliches:

• Abused/hurt woman learning to trust men/society/form community
• Birth/death occurring at the same time
• Found family
• Twin codependency enmeshment
• Romance with a troubled man

The wolves are more of a metaphor or a plot mechanism than actual characters. The enmeshment and codependency between the main character and her twin sister is very intense and they serve as foils to each other. The ending was unsatisfying with everything tidied into a bow and all conflicts resolved.

Now that I’ve had more time to think about this book I’m disappointed that it didn’t really focus on environmental restoration. Overall it’s a good read.

This book depicts DV/IPV, murder, and animal harm.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Blood

Minor: Pregnancy

mollison's review

dark 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

bwoo's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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: Animal death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Pregnancy

bamitstamz's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

racetotrace's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

I wanted to like this book, I did until the second half. I liked the plot lines, but the story turned unbelievable and I was so frustrated with Inti by the end. The whole climax to the story was crazy: while very pregnant and in the winter she 1) drags Duncan's into her car and to a hospital 2) rides a horse into a mountain and magically finds the wolf she thinks attacked people 3)kills it and drags the wolf onto the horse 4)goes into labor 5)loses the horse 6) gives birth in the snow without her water breaking 7) keeps trying to walk home while steadily bleeding 8)falls asleep out there without somehow dying 9)a wolf pack cuddles her to keep her warm during the night. Like what?!?!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Blood, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

tiphtap's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Death of parent

mainereading's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

I am in awe. This book was incredible, and it had a powerful message. It explores the relationship between humans and animals. But also the connection between humans and nature. It was a beautiful story but also very difficult to read at times. I feel like anyone who reads this would take something away from it. Also, I couldn’t help but think of the song Colors of the Wind by Judy Kuhn while reading this, which made it much more memorable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

hangrim's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Blood