Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon

18 reviews

sonygaystation's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I wasn’t quiet sure where this was going to go, even with it being a Frankenstein-inspired book. Sometimes the character actions felt a little confusing (ie. between Iris and Vi) but as it got further and further in the book I just got sad for everyone. I do wish there was a little more build up to the twist (which I did feel I started to guess pretty early on) rather than just spending time with the characters for the sake of it. I loved Eric he had my whole heart and I was sad at That One Part ™️. Also I enjoyed what was really going at the end, like give me more of that please!! It felt like a Mindy McGinnis novel there and I love her books 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Death, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Car accident

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Murder, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Blood

racheldallaire's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.75

I really enjoyed this one. It kept me wondering what would happen and I was caught by surprise a few times. A great story with great characters. I'll be thinking about this one for awhile.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Child abuse, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Car accident and Murder

bookedfortheweekend25's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma and Medical content

Minor: Murder and Animal cruelty

lilacs_book_bower's review against another edition

mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.75

in the 1970s, Vi and her brother live with their brilliant psychiatrist grandmother, who brings home a new "sister" for them.  Iris is mute and has injuries.  Slowly she comes out of her shell and the children have a club where they imagine they will hunt monsters.  In modern day, now as adults, one of the sisters is hunting the other one, who she suspects of being a serial killer.  Sounds good, right?  Unfortunately, it is pretty obvious which sister is the latter-day narrator, so the surprise falls flat.  There are a couple of other twists that are pretty obvious.  There is a fake out regarding the murdering sister that was nicely done, but then it is walked back.  On one hand, I think the book needed that final punch, but on the other hand, I am not sure how I feel about it affecting the message of the book about people being the real monsters. 

If people are the real monsters (and Iris believes there are real supernatural monsters too), and you have to kill your monster to start over and live, aren't you also becoming a monster?  Are we all just monsters?  If so, doesn't that lessen the impact of the "real" monsters among us? Aren't we supposed to be able to rise above our upbringings?  You could argue the grandmother created a monster in Vi, but Iris turned out more or less fine. As I said, I am ambivalent.

I would have vastly preferred we spend more time with the adult sister.  The story in the past kind of dragged on, since it was super obvious what was happening with both Iris and Vi.  I was also hoping for more from the Mary Shelley angle, but oh well.  This was a fine book and I enjoyed reading it, but I literally forgot I had even read it two days later, which is reflected in the rating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Medical trauma, Torture, Gaslighting, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Classism, Death of parent, Confinement, Death, Murder, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Mental illness

libraryghost's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, Car accident, Ableism, Body horror, Murder, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Violence, Torture, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Confinement

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Mental illness

gondorgirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child abuse, Gaslighting, Torture, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

magellen's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-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

3.0

This was my second read from McMahon, a sort of 'well maybe a different book is better' attempt after my first choice was lacking. I will go ahead and say this is not a horror or a thriller but only a novel, trying to thrill on occasion.

Meaning 😑 this will be my last attempt on McMahon- honestly it's probably a stylistic thing that some people like, but this author drowns you in rehashing and scenery. If the scenery was important, I'd be less bothered, but she will list off every object in a dang room and where they sit and back info on them whether or not its pertinent to the plot. I can't tell you what the majority of characters look like because they have such fleeting moments that lack individual voice but I could probably draw you a map of the setting. Wish I was kidding.

My other issue is while breadcrumbs are all good and well - bc twists SHOULD have clues that lead to them, so an audience may or may not guess on first read- guessing multiple twists within the first couple chapters is...disappointing.

If you think you know who Lizzie is, who the *monster* is, what happened to the girls, and who Vi is early on, buddy you probably guessed right bc the twists are as transparent as cellophane. By the time matters roll out in the back quarter of the book it's just like yeah yeah get it over with. The sociopathic freight train chugs right along and I feel like you'd have to be entirely zoned out not to catch it early.

If you like McMahon's style, you'll probably enjoy this book. It is stronger than The Invited in some ways ('cause god that romance/couple was grating to read, yeesh did they even like one another) but also lacking in voice. The Invited had a darker tone by focusing on violence against women and had more passion for the matter, while CotH is more

whoops grandma turned out to be a eugenicist but we still love her sort of and guess all the people she hurt are just up shit creek.

 

Happy to say this author just isn't for me, but if you want sprawling settling description about bland interiors, maybe she'll be a match for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Murder, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

chooper454's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, and Torture

Moderate: Murder, Death, and Physical abuse

Minor: Kidnapping and Death of parent

adamsbookshelf's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

After waiting for months for my turn at the library I can say this is not at all what I thought this book was going to be about! I was hesitant after the seemingly mild first half, but boy did the second half kick this story into A+ tier. I loved all of the twists and I'm so impressed that the author was able to add so much depth to this story. In doing that the twists that could have been basic felt more like a home run. I cannot properly describe how thrilled and gagged I was with this story!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Domestic abuse, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

espressoreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book throws the unexpected at a person.  It takes eugenics, an aspect of the world past, and likely present, which Americans like to pretend didn’t happen in the USA, and puts it in your face from the perspective of kids.  I was surprised multiple times in this book.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Classism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Murder, Torture, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Stalking

Minor: Sexual content