Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - Der Knochenwald: Roman

I really loved this book, the pacing was nice, I loved the character development of the main character and the slow unraveling of her past. Although the overall story was pretty predictable, there were quite a few surprises and twists in the story.

I also quite enjoyed the lack of detail for the monster, the characters in the story never figured it out so I feel we shouldn't either.

the ending felt sudden, but definitely still fitting. I like where the author decided to end the story, and I honestly think this book would make an amazing movie. It was a great story and I can definitely recommend it!

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catmomma's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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rowan27's review against another edition

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dark sad 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? It's complicated

0.5

I am so sorry for this review. I don't wanna hate on an author and their art but...

I hated this book. I disliked the way it was written, the repetitiveness of it, and the plot. I wish there was a redeeming factor, but I honestly can't think of one.

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dcnireads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

4.25

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

i usually dont do well with books that have less but beefy chapters, but ooh boy this was journey and i have to say i was invested almost right from the beginning. meeting mattie and being horrified by her current state to getting skin crawls as her real background slowly unfolds? chills. the back and forth "dialogue" and way of thinking as she switches between mattie and samantha's separate ways of thinking and seeing how both sides dealt with their situation internally? honestly excellent.

watching sam suffer through william's abuse and seeing her come to terms with what she lost because of him and how he affected her in many ways--especially after she escaped him--was heartbreaking. but at the same time, i admired how she refused to let the damage that he'd done dictate her fate and her future, and that no matter what he did to break her, sam was still there deep down, and she never lost her spirit. from beggining to end, she was a true fighter and it paid off for her in a satsifying way and that's what i'm fucking here for. plus, i loved the contrast of how sam dealt with trauma, danger and pain in a way that C.P. and the others couldn't, and how she was able to use her experiences and endurance for things like that to help them survive. it was a good way to show the definition of "pain makes you stronger" and i actually liked that.

i also liked the twist of there being two monsters who were actually parent and child, and how that explained why the mother only attacked the weakest and most vulnerable out of desire to protect its offspring. that was pretty clever. i do wish the "sorting" and "warning" behaviors of the cryptids were given more elaboration, and i think the last moment with them was a bit anti-climactic, but i have no other complaints. it was scary, imposing, unique and overall a pretty great creature feature.

i definitely got hooked on this one a bit more than i expected. the atmosphere was so eerie and intense, and every moment of danger [whether with william or the monsters] was quite thrilling and harrowing at the same time, to a point where i don't even mind that the final confrontation was kinda underwhelming. i'm just glad sam and C.P. made it out alive, and it felt cathartic that sam ended up being the one to end william's nasty ass. that along with the final paragraph and line of the book is enough to make this one is a strong 4.25 stars.

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kyra_joy's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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alexisgarcia's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

i have a bone to pick with Libby (or my library i’m not sure). despite it potentially being a spoiler to the reader, i think books should say when a book is going to contain supernatural/sci-fi/fantasy elements. that is 100% not a deal breaker for me but i HATE being surprised by that. on Libby, it did not say it in the top genres or the synopsis.

aside from that, this had some good aspects and some bad aspects. i think the underlying abuse

(kidnapping)

storyline felt a little bit of a caricature to me. some parts of it didn’t make sense/pan out

Is her sister even real? Why wasn’t she ever mentioned and nobody has any information on that but know everything else about the case? also, i feel like a lot of the stuff that the main character did didn’t make any sense for her situation. also, where did the drug stuff come from? that felt like it came out of left field.

there’s definitely lots and lots of trigger warnings.

the paranormal portions didn’t really work despite them being a surprise

How does the main character seem to understand and sense the “monster” perfectly despite any experience with anything of that nature? the proportions of the “monster” never made any sense to me either.

overall, i’m mad at Libby and don’t think this was done very well. take that as you will.

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