Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Manningtree Witches by A.K. Blakemore

12 reviews

pkc's review against another edition

dark funny informative mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Religious bigotry, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Torture, Mental illness, and Violence

tsapparelli's review against another edition

dark informative sad 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

3.0

A lot of the writing in this was really beautiful. I found it hard to put down. However I didn’t connect with the characters. I felt it was too surface level and didn’t delve into the characters’ thoughts and feelings enough.

I felt moved by the passage where Rebecca described what she imagines her mothers death would have been like, and I wish there was more of that in the rest of the book. I also found the ending where she finds Judith on the boat a bit unbelievable and it took me out of the story a bit.

But overall I thought this was a good book and I would read more by this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Murder, Misogyny, Death of parent, Sexism, Death, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Violence

eljarvo's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? No

3.0

Found this reeaaaally hard work, very beautifully written but almost too cryptic for me and I kind of had to slog my way through until the end. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

fictionalatte's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

this book is a must-read, even if it isn’t one you’d normally reach for. 

the author also captured the story on numerous levels, which was evident by her volume of research and knowledge accompanying this novel. 

although the plot is heavy, the ending had positive notes which didn’t reflect the tone shown previously, it showed us a new journey for rebecca, one of which wasn’t darkened by her past life.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Miscarriage, Gore, Grief, Torture, Medical content, Sexual content, Violence, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Minor: War and Slavery

spicykombucha's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.5

The writing was beautiful/well researched but the synopsis ultimately was misleading and ended up not being the book for me… I was angry the whole time but at least I felt something 🤷‍♀️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Religious bigotry

james1star's review against another edition

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

2.5

DNF’d at 50% (my first DNF) - so maybe my ‘review’ isn’t that worthy but I still had some thoughts. I’d probably give it a 2.5 ⭐️ maybe but I don’t fully know so I’ll go with a 3 to stay more neutral. 

I was just really not jamming well with the writing, characters or plot of this book. It was alrightish and slightly intriguing but I just didn’t like it. We follow Rebecca in the town of Manningtree in Essex during the civil war, things happen and the residents begin a witch-hunt-esque fearmongering campaign against certain women. There was more but Yhh not for me. The narrative changes from first to third but it’s not always clear until a few pages in - I dunno just quite confusing. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Grief, Sexual content, Death, War, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Violence

rachelwierick's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Blood, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Animal death, and Religious bigotry

ashlyntalksbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Blood, Animal cruelty, Murder, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Animal death

Moderate: Fatphobia, Death, and Child death

aimsro's review against another edition

dark 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Murder

celleuloid's review

dark emotional informative sad slow-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

4.0

I was given this book as a secret Santa gift. It was really out my comfort zone in terms of reading but I really loved it and WOW did it make my heart hurt. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death