Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar

Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Slaughtered Lamb Bookstore and Bar by Seana Kelly

7 reviews

mlcutter's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.5

I really loved this book. I hope the series is as good. Sam is the werewolf owner of the bookstore and bar, so of course I love her. She was severely tortured and turned to a werewolf, and now she hides out in her store. She has friends who are a demon, a vampire, and a witch, but she is mostly just hiding from her past. When a body washes up at her bar and has the same type of scars she has, her worlds collide. She has to decide if she's going to live her life or continue to hide. I love Sam as a character; she's flawed and so scarred she thinks she's ugly, so she hides in books. Very relatable for me. I will definitely read the next one. And I think Clive is my new book boyfriend!

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paxcoffee's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

4.0

I picked this up because reviews said Sam’s assault was handled well, and I wanted to see what that means.

I found the flashbacks hard to read, but

Clive understands boundaries and consent, you see her community emerge to support her, and she gets her bloody revenge on the person who originally attacked her.

Although it came out recently, this book feels like an old school paranormal romance, but more progressive. Sam isn’t a badass in leather pants, but she’s clearly going to be.

She makes some foolish decisions, but they’re mostly understandable. Mostly.

It’s funny enough that there were several scenes I read out loud to my husband.

The setting is cool. The bar itself is very cool, and San Francisco has a strong sense of place.

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wanderinglynn's review

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3.0

The story is uneven mostly because the world building is lacking and the character development is weak. I thought there was too much thrown into the first book, considering the book is less than 300 pages long. I lost count of how many times Sam’s life was in danger and honestly started skimming some of it. And I don’t particularly care for the dream-like death trope, which I thought was overused a bit here.

Sam is not well developed. It’s clear she had a lot of trauma at an early age (TW: kidnapping, rape, torture) and has scars to show for it. And again, this is where the lack of world building shows. She’s a werewolf, so why does she have scars? Because a silver blade was used? Because the trauma happened before her first change? Because there was sorcerer magic afoot? No real explanation for it. And moreover, no one questions why a werewolf has scars. It’s just never brought up.

The other characters are more one-dimensional. Clive is a stereotype of a master vampire, who, by the way, just keeps having neat powers when he needs them. Owen is a white witch and Dave is some sort of demon. Lots of other supernaturals are thrown in including succubi, kelpies, dragons, mermaids, possible gods/goddesses, and even one of the fates. But there wasn’t any seeming rules around this world. No rhyme or reason. While I like being immersed in a world where the supernatural exists, it still needs some boundaries, some form.

But despite these things, the story did keep me reading. It is fast paced and doesn’t keep you guessing on who the baddie is.

Although the real baddie is still out there at the end of book 1, so I’m guessing more shenanigans will be afoot in book 2.

And why use the Middle English version of witch - wicche? It just seemed to random. She didn’t use “vampyre” or werewulf/werwulf. So why use the old form of witch? Again, the lack of world building did hurt the story.

Overall, uneven. And I’m not sure I liked it enough to read book 2.

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