Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North

23 reviews

paronomaniac's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Violence, Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide, Kidnapping, Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Vomit, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury

bethalyea's review against another edition

4.25

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Physical abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Addiction, Bullying

soobooksalot's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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Alex North's debut, The Whisper Man, is still on my shelf of favourites.
 The follow-up, The Shadows, I could barely get through. Next, The Angel Maker, started out strong but ultimately disappointing.
 I'm happy to report I was fully invested in The Man Made Of Smoke. 
 The opening chapter is one that hooked me like nothing else as of late. From there, the differing timelines aren't well identified and take a bit of getting used to. But the ending was a hugely satisfying payoff.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Kidnapping, Death of parent

rooislost's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail

boiler_bookworm's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder

efulton's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Kidnapping, Murder

Minor: Vomit

opplecopter's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious sad tense 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

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Hard to rate this one. I’ve read two books previously by Alex North. The first was The Whisper Man and I absolutely loved it. The second was The Shadows and I was unimpressed. This one also felt rather unimpressive. I believe the issue is that the first book I read as a physical copy and the second and third one (this one) I listened to as audio. The narration was ok, but the narrator was British and I feel that his particular dialect didn’t mesh well with the story being told. It may have also been his performance too. It felt kind of flat. I think that’s the same thing that happened with the other one I listened to as well. The book has a great storyline but I think I may have enjoyed this one significantly more if I’d read a physical copy. The audio just didn’t do it justice. I would still recommend this one, but not as audio.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death

knollelisa's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Thoroughly enjoyed it. Horrendously mad that I wasn't able to figure out the killer from the summary...it was RIGHT THERE

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal cruelty

the_autumn_reader's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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This one was good! The build up of dread made this story even more compelling! I do feel like it dragged on towards the end and was a little confusing at times.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Kidnapping, Murder

juliannecridlin's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Murder