Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Sign Here by Claudia Lux

60 reviews

emilyyjjean's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was so freaking good! I read it so quickly, because I could not put it down. I liked the change in perspectives throughout the story. I felt like it kept the story fresh and interesting.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Abandonment, and Child abuse

Minor: Torture

eggbeater's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

4.25

Hell itself is comedic--you can never find a pen that works, you're always stepping in deep puddles, the radio only plays songs that you hate, the bar only serves Jägermeister--but life on earth can be surprisingly dark and involves a lot of child abuse, fair warning.

The short chapters, constant small reveals, and switching points of view kept me quickly turning the pages. It was messed up, but I liked it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

jules6469's review

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

This book is two intertwined narratives told back and forth throughout, before they eventually come together. For a supernatural/horror/thriller/dark comedy, the writing and exploration of humanity in the characters is beautiful. This story asks us what it means to be a good person vs. a bad person and how to know what kind of person we want to be. Other themes explored include guilt, grief, and love. This was the best of both worlds for me as I enjoy a thriller grounded in reality just as much as a dark comedy set in Hell. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Pregnancy, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, and Cancer

micaelamariem's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

This book would’ve been better as a thriller without any of the paranormal/hell/demon stuff. It sounded cool but those were the parts that bored me. Reading about the family on earth was interesting, but overall could’ve been done better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Violence, Death, Sexism, Alcohol, Death of parent, Bullying, Child abuse, Abandonment, Cancer, Cursing, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Blood, Car accident, and Murder

neens_m's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Self harm, and Death

Moderate: Child death and Suicide

nekoshka's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.25

For some reason, I went into this expecting it to be dark comedy. It’s really, really not. Also, I spent the whole book expecting Silas to assault Ruth or smth. That didn’t happen (so no adult/minor stuff, thankfully), but it was extremely creepy. 

Cal’s backstory was interesting, if a bit too convoluted. I really wanted to like Pey, but he was just too bland. 

Overall, it was dark, unnecessarily sexual and the characters a bit underdeveloped. But not bad. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Death, Infidelity, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Eating disorder, and Drug use

Minor: Pregnancy, Suicide, and Cancer

mxbadger's review

dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Violence, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Physical abuse

Minor: Infidelity

margaret721's review against another edition

dark reflective sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Body horror, Violence, Child death, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Gun violence, Self harm, Torture, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Blood, and Trafficking

darkhorse488's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

My feelings about this book are so all over the place I’m honestly not sure what to rate it. I feel like this would have been a 5 star read for me without one plotline and one brief piece of content that requires allll the trigger warnings (because I nearly threw the book across the room when I got it). 

There are solid and original ideas here and I’m glad I stuck with this to see how nicely Lux tied all the plot lines together. Unfortunately, this is a debut novel that reads like a debut novel. There are too many ideas here and it needed a much heavier editing hand.  I will be curious to read Claudia Lux’s future work once she gets some more writing experience under her belt. I think her future work has strong potential. 

Also if you’re tempted to read this because of the “Office Space” style satirical humor listed in the description, please know the marketing for this book is WAY, WAY wrong. Sign Here is really more of a light horror, slower paced psychological thriller. It took me a bit to adjust my expectations but once I finally realized what this book was actually trying to do I appreciated it much more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Pedophilia

lottiebrooks's review

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Reading a book about Hell where all of the things you despise the most are part of the world-building is so incredibly validating. 

I postponed finishing this book so I could spend more time with it; SUCH a fun story with plot twists and humor. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Self harm, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Gun violence