Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride

4 reviews

amelia_horseman's review against another edition

dark funny tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Body horror, Torture, Grief, Blood, Violence, Murder, and Physical abuse

juan_adhd_reading's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

It was really fun! In many ways, this reminded me a lot of Percy Jackson, with a paranormal theme and geared towards teens / YA. I did think things got solved a bit quickly in the end, and it did have some pacing issues. But, I had a great time reading it, and I’m excited for the sequel. Easy read, would recommend

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, Blood, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Murder, Kidnapping, Self harm, Sexual content, Grief, and Confinement

Minor: Bullying

The book is about a college dropout that discovers he’s a Necromancer, so death plays a really big part of the story. This is a YA book so most of deaths are not explicit, but the descriptions of injuries, abuse and the use of blood to perform magic can be. Among the things to watch out for:

Sam’s friend is decapitated (non explicit)but comes back as a talking head; Sam is severely injured in the back while confronting a man we later discover is a werewolf; a werewolf woman (Brid) is kidnapped, stripped down (non sexual) and experimented on; Sam is kidnapped and gets a concussion; Sam and Brid are trapped in a cage and severely abused, including hitting, backhand slapping and at one point whipped; Sam and Brid have sex (non explicit); Sam has to kill a dove to perform necromancy; Sam slits his own arm and hands to draw blood (same reason); Sam sees the spirits of previously tortured and murdered victims (moderately graphic); Sam kills his captor by slitting his throat (graphic description of blood); Sam friend’s Ramon is injured with broken glass during the final battle, collapsing into a vial that contains were-bear blood.

camam4's review against another edition

funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Violence

neni's review against another edition

lighthearted 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? No

2.0

This was disappointing. The writing style wanted to be cool in a  sarcastic way but came out mostly annoying and unrealistic (the dialogue was practically all smart comebacks and snappy remarks to the point none of the characters felt like real people - no one talks like that). 
The characters were extremely shallow, not interesting and not that likeable either. The main character especially was just ugh - tipical smartass loner weird dude who doesn't have a single believable reaction to anything that happens to him and who's constantly praised for being "a good guy" for literally the most mundane, decent human being attitudes that everyone should have (there was a part where he was stuck somewhere with a naked werewolf girl - don't ask - whom he ended up befriending, and he kept patting himself on the back for not "taking advantage" of her in her vulnerable emotional state but that "she better give him her number at the end of all this" - like WTF you disgust me). And don't get me started on Brid (naked werewolf girl). Talk about a 2D character jesus. Shallower than a dinner plate man. Also the villain was a shit villain with no real motivations or agenda except power power more power? and violence? whatever man.
The worldbuilding was a giant jumbled mess, it felt like the author threw all the shit she wanted in there (werewolfs? check. necromancers? check. werewolf-fey hybrids, tiny dragon creature who also turns into a cat, weird ghosts zombies that aren't actually ghosts? - i mean it was kinda ridiculous) and made the bare minimum effort to sort of (but not really) integrate them into a world.
I suppose that the author wanted this to be a fun, urban fantasy, fast-paced romp. But the truth is, it does take even a little bit of talent to write good "trashy" fiction and this ain't it. Don't bother. The whole thing was extremely weak. I only finished it to fulfill a prompt in a book challenge I'm doing, otherwise would have DNF'd it a third of the way through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Kidnapping, Violence, Animal death, Death, and Torture