Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Shallow River by H.D. Carlton

79 reviews

_ashsomething's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

aliciaallisonmorgan's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

amylferg's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

More like 3.5 ⭐️

With a ton of spice 

Listen, I am a big lover of HD Carlton’s books and it took me a minute to understand where this fell flat.

You have this strong, resilient FMC who continuously claims she takes no shit. She’s obviously grown up in these horrible conditions and everything about that made my heart break for her. I truly believed her strength. 

BUT then you see she finds herself in one of the most volatile DV situations I’ve ever read. And I won’t even begin to pretend that I would know how to handle that situation but I think my confusion came from how unestablished her “love” for Ryan felt. 

The timeline goes: 

River mentions a crush on Ryan, finds out he’s recently single and mentions maybe pursuing him. 

You jump 2 years and they’re already in a fully established relationship, deeply in love. River briefly mentions how she ended up pursuing him but that’s really it. 

You don’t get to see their relationship and love build at all. In fact, the 2 year jump immediately brings you into the very early stages of Ryan’s abuse so you have no time to form any good connection with him. 

So that being said, for the majority of the book, I could not understand in any capacity why River stayed/goes back. I kept thinking she had an ulterior motive and we were all going to be shocked that she’s had this master plan the entire time but after a while it became clear I was wrong. 

The subplot of the serial killer/childhood tormentor and Mako really brought the story back but I just personally wish River & Ryan’s relationship was established more before everything started to fall apart so I could feel more connected to Rivers mindset. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Blood, and Murder

ellebecks's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, and Injury/Injury detail

smaines16's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

the1msfisher's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape, and Violence

Absolutely wonderful, well written book However please take the trigger warnings seriously. If you have ever been in an abusive relationship/ a relationship with narcissistic person, this read will be incredibly hard. But I LOVED it. It's the ultimate fantasy

for anyone who wishes they could kill their abuser

cheeserue's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

this was a hard read for me, but I really loved it. to see river be able to escape from the demons that surrounded her and be able to build a beautiful life for herself was inspiring to see. especially since we can't legally have the same type of justice in real life. 

I will say that I absolutely hated the immediate proposal and pregnancy trope at the end - it's why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Rape, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Stalking

sophiewacher's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, and Torture

kaylee_brown's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

haleereadsxoxo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.75

To start, please read the trigger warnings!! The strength of River was almost unmatchable to any other female main character I’ve ever come across. The plot was thick, perfectly executed, kept me guessing, kept me hopeful. The only reason this was not a five star read for me was the intensity of the majority of the book that was met with an endgame I needed more of. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Murder