Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - The Chestnut Man

Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup

27 reviews

danaslitlist's review against another edition

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

1.0

Well, this book was sitting at a solid three stars for the majority of my reading. I found the slow burn pacing and build up rather effective and the way the writer described emotions and the terrifying situations clever, but I couldn't get past the rampant use of the slur P*ki (though used strictly in the POV of characters we're clearly not supposed to root for) that felt tossed around every other time a background character from "the rough part of town" was described. This was what was holding the book back from being a higher rating, until the reveal of who the Chestnut Man (who I'll call X to avoid spoilers) actually was and then I audibly groaned and knew this was going to drop lower.

When I tell you at the beginning of the book I jokingly said to myself, "Watch it be X character" because that would be the most random yet predictable killer, I'm dead serious. And lo and behold, I was right. Not only did I find this reveal a complete let down because narratively it felt lazy, it was also a let down because while yes, it might be "shocking" that doesn't make it good. The reason it was shocking was because there was literally ZERO groundwork or clues leading to it being X. Of course it was going to shock the reader when you pull a villain out of thin air.

Add on top of that issue the totally misogynistic and bizarre logic of X's motives, and you've got a mess of an ending. Do I understand that serial killers have a tendency to be a misogynistic and illogical? Oh absolutely! But that doesn't fit the picture that has been painted of this character. If X is trying to punish people in retaliation for their past, why is it that it falls solely on this one type of victim and not the other when it's proven on page that they blame both types of people for the trauma of their past? It just didn't make sense to me. And maybe that is on me for expecting this genius level serial killer to have morals or emotions (even though again, we're shown that they're acting out of a place of EMOTION AND MORALS).

And, you're telling me that Rosa didn't realize WHO POTENTIALLY was involved when that event in the past was marked with a chestnut doll?!?! I cannot. I cannot.

But what absolutely stings the most is that the final lesson in this book is: traumatized and abused children turn into bad adults who will the same to others, intentionally or not. There is a severe lack of nuance or empathy towards X’s sibling who most definitely was not mentally well and extremely traumatized.

This was so beyond disappointing as the atmosphere and the build up was well crafted.

PS: the minister lady deserves to rot in hell.

Content Warnings

madalina0_0's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

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racheldallaire's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

2.5

It took me awhile to get into this one. I think that maybe Nordic Noir is not for me. It was very dark, which I sometimes don't mind, but this was very dark with very little hope and so many disturbing content considerations. 2.5 stars because it was okay and the second half kept me guessing.

Content Warnings

daniesteves's review against another edition

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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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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azureye31's review

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dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

I am always up for an intense, dark, Scandinavian thriller, so that is what attracted me to this book. I am also aware that this particular author is also a screen writer and has had several successful series on television, so I was very curious, and excited to read a piece of his work.

What worked:

The author made good use of atmosphere to draw the reader in. The book felt very dark, and the descriptions of the surroundings added to this feeling of sinister (snowy, cold, gray Copenhagen). I also enjoyed the plot, and it did keep me, at times, on the edge of my seat. This book is a mixture of plot driven, and an attempt to be character driven with a very dark tone.

The translation from Danish was very good, and did not appear to lose anything in the process. Nothing felt awkward or out of place.

What didn’t work:

I felt confused with the characters because there were so many, and the author did not do a good job of developing them. None of them had a distinct voice, and I did not feel a sense of empathy for any of them. It was purely plot that kept me engaged in the book, and not an attachment to any particular character. The reader is given very little insight into any of them. The author’s attempt at creating a character driven story, in my humble opinion, failed. Had it not been for the very strong plot, I would have not stayed engaged.

The author chose to write in third person, limited and the constant shifting of characters got confusing. At times, the chapter would start out without any sense of who we were talking about, and three pages later the another would drop a hint. It felt disorienting, and detracted from the story.

The plot itself was very intense, and did keep me on edge, however some of it was a little unbelievable and could have been edited out. This book was very long, but needlessly so.

I am giving it 3 out of five stars.

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kyra_joy's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

When I first looked at the size of this book I was like that’s a lot of pages but I sat down and finished it in one sitting. It was gripping and I didn’t want to put it down, any thrillers or mysteries I read after this will have big boots to fill.

The characters were all pretty typical of your classic CSI/ criminal minds show but more enjoyable as the length of it allowed for so much for detail.

I always enjoy reading books set in other parts of the world so I really loved it for that aspect.

And the mystery in my opinion really caught me off guard! I am normally pretty good at figuring out endings but this one was a complete surprise.

Definitely will be reading more from this author!

Content Warnings

kim_ng's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

At first, It took me some time to grasp all the characters and storylines. I was also thinking about not reading any further because I didn't quite warm up to the female main character and the story dragged on a bit. However, it got better and the story on its own was good.
Nevertheless, it is extremely (sometimes unnecessarily) graphic, dark, brutal and gory.

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Die Story an sich war gut. Leider fand ich die deutsche Übersetzung manchmal sehr eigenartig. Mit Thulin (weiblicher Hauptcharakter) wurde ich nicht warm, Hesse mochte ich dafür recht gerne. Die Story war ganz gut, zog sich aber an manchen Stellen. Für meinen Geschmack ist das Buch teilweise aber sehr grausam und brutal.

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victoriakuo13's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

***CHECK TWs!!!***

I would agree with a lot of the other reviews saying this book was slow to start. The varying POVs are interesting once you get a hold of the characters. Before that, it’s like a swamp in your brain where you’re constantly trying to think back and remember whose life you’re reading about.

While most other thrillers I’ve read have been undeniably fast paced, this is the first one I’ve felt has been a slow burn. I’m not sure how I liked it— it was definitely a fridge at times, but I do feel like it made the payoff that much better. I liked feeling like the puzzle pieces were slowly coming together in my head.

I really enjoyed the partnership between Thulin and Hess even though I wish they actually worked together more. I thought they had good chemistry and would love to read another mystery with them in it. There’s so much room for relationship development there and I’m sad it has to end here.

I’m usually absolutely awful at guessing who the murderer is, so I’m kinda shocked that I actually did guess this one. This person was my main suspect from the beginning, and again, I SUCK at piecing these things together so if you’re the type of person who wants to be surprised, you may not be in this case? Or it’s possible I just had very good luck this time around.

There are also a few questions that I still have that I don’t feel were answered in the book but the way the chapters are structured so that something is revealed and then the author explains it fully many chapters later may be the reason why. I may have just missed it.

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essie__reads's review

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challenging dark emotional 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? No

5.0

This book kept me hooked from the beginning. I tend not to enjoy thrillers because I often find them too predictable, but that was not the case with this book. I genuinely had no idea who the killer was or what their motive was, until it was revealed in the book. This book is over 500 pages but the chapters are short and fly by. There were several different characters introduced in the beginning which made the beginning a bit slow but they are easy to differentiate between and the rest of the book flowed very seamlessly. If you enjoy detective/police thrillers, I would highly recommend this one. I felt like the ending was left open enough for the possibility of a sequel, while still wrapping up the main plot very well. I am looking forward to watching the Netflix series adaptation!!

Please be advised to look up content warnings!!!!!!

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fbzcab's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

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