Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Sign Here by Claudia Lux

27 reviews

symabee's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

I thoroughly enjoyed Sign Here and was shocked to learn this was the authors debut novel. It is a dark comedy, a murder mystery, a coming of age tale, and a moving story about humanity and love, all rolled into one. I love the way this author writes and look forward to her future books. 

Things of note:
✅️ Short chapters
✅️ Lots of alternating POV 
⚠️ Check content warnings. While this book can be humorous, it also contains a lot of dark subject matter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Infidelity, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Eating disorder, Self harm, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Torture, Blood, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Gore, Kidnapping, Cancer, Pregnancy, Drug use, Abortion, and Fire/Fire injury

dayslife143's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

This book did such a great job making you want just a little more. Giving you all the pieces of the puzzle but no clue what the final picture is. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Suicide, Violence, and Self harm

Moderate: Abandonment, Death, and Child death

haylzno's review against another edition

funny mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.5

WOW. 
I absolutely devoured this book. Finished in barely a day. It was super fast paced, multiple POVs and short chapters that keep you saying "okay one more chapter"

I thought the author dropped some really nice hints throughout the whole thing. Some twists I guessed some I didn't but it kept me guessing the wholeeeee time. I loved (most) of the characters and the dynamic between Hell and Earth. I enjoyed the world building and found myself chuckling at far too many of the "hells" experienced in Hell (she kinda nailed that corporate office life LOL). 
There's one aspect of the book I didn't like but I'm going to hide it in a following spoiler warning just incase. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it 

SPOILER:

My biggest peeve is the pedophilia.... I don't understand why that was included. Did it make Silas an easy character to hate? Hell yea. But wtf was the point of it? I think it easily could have been taken out and wouldn't have changed the story at all. And the comment about his OWN DAUGHTERS LEGS?!?! No. Straight to jail. Why was that even necessary

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, and Child abuse

Minor: Abandonment

kalzoni's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Child death

Moderate: Bullying, Body horror, and Abandonment

Minor: Cancer and Abortion

mecmccann's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-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

3.0

This book was very okay. Definitely entertaining, but sometimes confusing and predictable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Murder, Gun violence, Eating disorder, and Abandonment

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

dark funny 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: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Self harm, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Infidelity, Death of parent, Blood, and Drug abuse

Minor: Cancer

snwalsh's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-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

4.5

I read this book start to finish in one day while sick in bed. The moment I picked it up, I couldn't put it down and wanted to get to the resolution. The story was light, snarky, and refreshing as a new take on making a deal with the devil, while still being very dark and morbid. This makes me think of a cross of The Good Place and Dead Like Me. Some subject matter felt iffy and unnecessary to the plot,

especially the parts that veered on pedophilia for Silas.

I also think the least "tight" part of the story was the HR report. It felt like it didn't match the style of an HR report and gave too much narrative/emotion, which brought me out of the story trying to skim to the next part. The backstory that is brought up in the report is important to a part of the story, but imo was a little boring and could have been shorten considerably. That is the only reason I'm not giving this a straight 5.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Blood, Alcohol, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Murder, Suicide, Abandonment, and Child death