Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Sign Here by Claudia Lux

69 reviews

sonias's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.25

Hell is yucky and unlucky 😎

These two quotes describe the book perfectly:

Love is all-powerfull, untill you learn first-hand what happens when a vegetable peeler meets the far-back surface of your tongue. 

Who was the first person to seek comfort in another? 
Did it work? 
And if not who was brave enough to try again? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Gore and Violence

Minor: Suicide

caro_shelves's review

dark funny mysterious tense 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

4.75

I loved this book! The writing is impeccable, and Lux's gradual weaving of the story gradually draws you in. What appears to be a simple, tragic family drama is intricately connected to Peyote and Calamity's work in Hell. It's excellent. There were so many moments that had me gasping out loud. It's worth the read if you like a bit of mystery alongside your horror and humor. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Gore, Toxic friendship, Self harm, and Mental illness

Moderate: Trafficking, Torture, Alcohol, Violence, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

spicycronereads's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted sad tense 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

4.0

I listened to the audiobook, performed by Macleod Andrews and Brittany Pressley. It was a lot of fun.

This book is really hard to describe. It is part absurd workplace comedy (where the workplace is hell) and part thriller. 

There are two parallel narratives, one following Peyote Trip, the hell salesperson charged with closing deals. We see what happens to his work life when a new woman joins the organization. The other narrative centers on a family going to their summer house in New Hampshire. 

The first half of the book really centers on the absurdity of hell and building the tension around this family’s summer vacation. And then it takes a pretty dark turn and the thriller aspects ramp up. 

I won’t say much more for fear of spoiling it but there is character development and it happens in some surprising ways. Speaking of surprises, I guessed a few of the twists but at least one got me. 

There is pretty much no diverse representation. Everyone is white and the family on earth has multi-generational wealth. 

The audio performances are great. I loved Macleod Andrew’s’ take on Peyote’s voice and Brittany Pressley really brought bone head teenage boys to life while simultaneously capturing women in a variety of ages. 

Overall, I really enjoyed it. To the point that when I got home from work yesterday with only an hour left to go, I listened to the rest from the couch (I normally only listen while driving or doing housework). It also made me feel totally justified in my dislike of Jagermeister. 😂 IYKYK. It is a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Violence, Abandonment, Torture, and Self harm

Moderate: Infidelity and Murder

Minor: Toxic relationship, Bullying, and Toxic friendship

Cult,

samisreading's review

challenging dark funny tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Violence, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Gun violence, Child death, Classism, and Murder

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

esme_may's review

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Gun violence, Murder, Blood, Infidelity, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Body shaming, Body horror, Torture, Suicide, Bullying, Cursing, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Abortion, War, Car accident, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Medical content

mstormodolge's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Okay, to start off: I dunno if it was just my online copy or just in general but this book needed more trigger warnings. Do I understand it’s a book about hell and demons? Yes. But damnit I never needed detailed descriptions about self harm and the itch of it. That was one of the most triggering things I’ve ever read. I was so ready to give this book 5 stars until that. And it was so unnecessary!!
Overall, this book was fucking fire. It’s such a unique plot with some really interesting characters and ideas plus the surprises actually surprised me sometimes. Like even the ones I expected I still gasped aloud at how they were revealed. And the ending is so perfect! Like it’s such a strong book. I loved how many characters you got to watch and how their stories interacted and I adored how much Pey changed throughout it. It’s such a good dark book I just can’t see myself ever owning a book with self harm in it at this point in my life. 
I’d still recommend it, but while being wary. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Violence

Moderate: Eating disorder, Murder, Drug use, and Physical abuse

lela's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I don't think this book is marketed very well - I was expecting more of a darkly funny supernatural story, and while there were aspects of that (some real funny characters in hell) it was mostly a family mystery. So overall it was a fine book (not a lot of character depth but I thought the pacing was excellent for a debut novel) but not something that's really in my wheelhouse. 
I did like that there were some parts of the mystery you could work out for yourself while still having some surprising twists

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Body shaming, and Violence

Minor: Drug use and Suicide

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

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