Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín

13 reviews

ilaxaria's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Ableism, Blood, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture

Moderate: Self harm, Misogyny, and Vomit

Minor: Islamophobia

ribbenkast's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Immediately, I was very interested by the premise of this book. Right from the start, although the subject matter is quite dark I was having so much fun reading it. However the book took a little while to convince me it was not only fun but also clever and good. The ending was worth it though.

The premise: 25 years ago Ireland got cut off from the rest of the world and now every teenager at one point in their live gets "called" and transported to the Grey Land/the fae realm where they have to survive being hunted for sport by vengeful sadistic Sìdhe/fae is amazing. This premise has also major implications for how society will shape itself around this conundrum. A good example is that we follow a physically disabled main character who got polio as a young child because there weren't any vaccines. That's good world building and I'm so happy to read some good disability rep.

This is also where the book gets a little bit frustrating sometimes. You can tell O'Guilan is a good world builder. I'm willing to bet they've written up a Lore Bible and a many page document about the history of the Sìdhe and how the Irish society and its politics as it's currently functioning within the book. However all this clever world building is mostly hidden within throwaway lines from random characters in favor of showing of the teen drama. 

The book has some of the most creative body horror I've seen in a while. However, in a lot cases the scene fades to black to soon. Afterwards the body horror is only described as "terrible" by the other characters without further details. I understand that the author was probably going for "nothing's worse than your own imagination" trope, but I do think O'Guilan missed and excellent opportunity to show just how sadistic and twisted the Sìdhe are. 

Both of these issues could've been resolved by making the book 30-50 pages longer. And I would've gladly read it. I'm picking up part 2 soon. 7.8/10 - 4/5⭐

P.S. It's horror, please check the trigger warnings and take care of yourself! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Murder, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Ableism, Body horror, Violence, Torture, Kidnapping, Death, Confinement, Blood, Alcohol, Addiction, Chronic illness, Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Child death, Abandonment, Colonisation, Genocide, Violence, Mass/school shootings, War, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal death, Confinement, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

larmaint's review against another edition

mysterious medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death

breedawnwriter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad fast-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

4.75

Wow. This book was INCREDIBLE. I read it in two sittings because I literally couldn’t put it down.

This book is not for the faint of heart, since the content is both disturbing and mature, but I’d still recommend for older YA audiences.

If you like The Hunger Games, disturbing fae, boarding school stories, forbidden romance, and otherworldly cat-and-mouse games, you’ll love The Call. 

Just make sure you read the trigger warnings first!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Violence, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Torture, Murder, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Gun violence, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Vomit, Cannibalism, Confinement, Cursing, and Self harm

Minor: Excrement, Pregnancy, Suicide, Alcohol, and Abortion

There are a ton of body horror/injury/deformation descriptions in this book. If you are sensitive to that, please don’t read this book. A male character attempts to rape a female character. It is a traumatic scene, but not overly graphic. It is mentioned that the male character forcibly kisses her and pushes himself against her. He also touches her boobs. There are LGBT relationships in this book. They are not a focal point, but there are references to homosexual dating, kissing, and desires.

g_xandra's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.5

A read that is hard to put down. The fate of each character is hard to look away from, each time you have just a little hope. Similar feel to hunger games, but more body horror. 

Some of the characters do feel a bit one dimensional and predictable. But overall, a fun read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Bullying, Suicide, Cursing, Sexism, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Body horror, and Ableism

mikayyyla's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I had such a hard time rating this book. I absolutely loved the premise and the world building checked all the boxes for me. Personally, the writing was lacking just a bit for me. I wish this book had been a little longer and had delved deeper into the many characters it introduced. I also felt confused by the characters at times because I believe they were supposed to be younger than they seemed to me. The body horror and gore were done very well in my opinion and gave me some visuals that I’m sure to have nightmares about. 

I definitely think it’s worth a read, if only for the fascinating and frightening premise and world building. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Body horror

ssc1109's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Four stars because I genuinely enjoyed this ride along Irish folklore with a sick, demented twist. I am excited to pick up the second book!

Only reason it's not five stars is because we don't really dive into the characters much. While it's not a deal breaker for me, I felt very much like a reader instead of immersed into the book and their characters. So it made it difficult to mourn the characters. 

This book is definitely not for young teens. There is heavy cussing, sex, sexual assault, death, so much death, gun violence towards the end and a lot of mutilation. Nothing is gory, but it's definitely twisted. 

Would likely pick this book up again in a few years. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Sexual assault and Gun violence

alisonvh's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.5

This book is good, but I’m not sure I enjoyed it. It’s very dark, and I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I started reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Alcohol, Suicide, Self harm, Physical abuse, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Violence, Murder, Blood, Addiction, Child death, Torture, Ableism, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Colonisation, Bullying, Body horror, Alcoholism, and Animal death

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Bullying, Child death, Gore, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Hate crime, Cannibalism, Confinement, Colonisation, Sexual harassment, Excrement, Genocide, Grief, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

loscamp4lyf's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.75

a fast pace fantasy-horror-blood bath! theres so many characters its hard to keep track of who is who, but

they most all end up dead so its not worth remembering their names

. I found the Nessa's absolute devotion to Anto a bit annoying, but if its the only thing keeping you going, go for it girl. 

Conner was also annoying and im a bit miffed his storyline very much ended abruptly

with nessa killing him

and with no real resolution of

deal w the fae to end the pact

, like it just ends!! I know theres a sequel so hopefully that picks it up some.

Otherwise, a good quick story! its definitely brutal in the torturing of the kids but tbh it was so intense you couldnt put it down. Theres tiggering subjects (body horror, a lot of death, etc), but the characters rarely react strongly to it.

Highly recommend the audio book for the authentic irish accent experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Body horror, Torture, Animal death, and Child death