Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

30 reviews

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad 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

As a fan of Caleb Carr, I was floored to see a recent interview where he announced he had terminal cancer. He was describing his newest book, My Beloved Monster, a memoir of his life with a semi-feral cat which also addressed his abusive childhood. Because I loved both cats and Carr, I had to read that book. 

I finished the memoir a few days ago and immediately started The Alienist. When I first read it, Google didn’t exist and I knew nothing of Carr’s history. Reading it now was a very different experience than in 1994. I understood Carr’s references and had images of old New York at my fingertips, able to see High Bridge Tower, Croton Reservoir, and other landmarks. 

I could see Carr’s childhood everywhere in the book. His knowledge about alcoholic and abusive parents clearly comes from experience. That and his study of New York City give a vivid feel to the whole book, despite its taking place a century earlier than when written. 

The Alienist is a page-turner but it’s not for the faint of heart looking for a beach read. It addresses class and wealth and education, power and corruption, mental illness and the care of the mentally ill, the desperation that drives children into prostitution, and the violence that results from continued abuse and bullying. It’s a beautifully written story about a terrible time when terrible things happened all too frequently. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Body horror, Mental illness, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Pedophilia, Torture, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Excrement, Homophobia, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Child death, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual violence, and Bullying

sappypatheticm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Animal death, Gore, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Murder, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Racism, Rape, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Pedophilia, Death, Blood, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, and Child death

Moderate: Excrement, Cannibalism, Police brutality, and Antisemitism

itsjadenbaby's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

I liked the use of an Alienist and a journalist as the protagonists of the story. It takes the story to a new place where a cop protagonist couldn’t go. I really enjoyed it, the audiobook is a solid narration.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Child abuse, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Trafficking, and Murder

Moderate: Torture, Gun violence, Hate crime, Blood, Homophobia, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Animal death, Cannibalism, and Police brutality

raginsagein's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious 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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Alcohol, Addiction, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Drug use, Antisemitism, Deadnaming, Classism, Colonisation, and Cannibalism

that_bookworm_guy's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

This is a dark story that has a pot of descriptions and explanation of the plot and the history. I've read reviews that have mentioned it's a lot of description and details, but I absolutely love that

The story is long but doesn’t feel as long as it looks. I was a little intimated by the length but it feels shorter than it is. 

I really enjoyed this

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Vomit, Body horror, Medical content, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Sexual content, Trafficking, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

carlaabra's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was surprisingly good, and I don’t like historical fiction usually. Our narrator is witty (I’ve chuckled) and self-aware, which makes sense given the story is being recollected by our narrator 15 years in the future. I’m not a big fan of the explicit foreshadowing at the end of chapters, eg (I’m making this up) “I felt as though XYZ was looking up, but as I would find out in a few days time, our troubles would only get worse”. Before reading I thought some of the psychoanalysis/profiling would be boring/repetitive (I’ve watched Criminal Minds so I’m basically an expert /s) but it’s been quite interesting. I liked all the main characters and how they bounced off eachother. One gripe is the author’s treatment of side characters, who seemingly exist to be in danger and create tension. Our main characters are too precious to harm, I guess. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence

katielizroy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

A super compelling plot but the writing style reads a bit slow. Great book for those interested in old New York City though a lot of the details throughout are a bit tough to read

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Stalking, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Gore, Pedophilia, Blood, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Ableism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, and Death

alysss's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Murder, and Violence

kaitlyn15's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

3.5

I think I went into this book with a lot of expectations, which is never a good start. I loved the TV adaption, so I had to read the novel when I found out about it. The resemblance between the two is very strong, especially in the characters (particularly Kreizler). However, I would say this book was too long. The first half was a bit difficult to get through, until it picked up. There was also a couple instances of slurs. Even if we are aiming for historical accuracy, I just don’t see a need for that. Overall, it was a good book though. The mystery was very well plotted out, the main characters were three-dimensional, and the reveal made sense. I don’t know that I would read it again (and I’m not reading the sequel immediately), but I don’t regret reading it by any means. 
Association Words: gotta stop with the slurs, dark, heavy, kinda sciencey(ish), that baby can fit a lot of trauma in it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Sexual assault and Animal cruelty

bxnnny's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

a fairly slow-paced and dense read, but kept me interested throughout. felt like an 1800s version of mindhunter. i found the main character to be one of the least likeable characters (besides the obvious criminals/bad guys) as he often came across as whiny and narrow-minded and i grew tired of his constant need of approval and inclusion by the others. there were also some weird undertones of homophobia and perhaps even transphobia and just general bigotry mainly from him that i didn't enjoy either. i suppose one could argue that "times were different then," but i still wasn't a fan. the writing could often times be pretty dense and over-explanatory, but i become used to the writing style as the story progressed and i ultimately was interested enough in the plot to keep reading. i didn't expect teddy roosevelt to be a character at all, much less play a fairly prominent role, and the book at times just felt like a weird teddy roosevelt fan fiction. which, i guess it could actually be considered one...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Trafficking, Child abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, Transphobia, Mental illness, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Confinement

Moderate: Rape, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, and Stalking

Minor: Sexism, Sexual violence, and Antisemitism