Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Shallow River by H.D. Carlton

24 reviews

hanschub's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Blood, Rape, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Violence, Torture, and Child abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Infertility, and Medical content

Minor: Animal cruelty and Pregnancy

poupimali's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

5.0

That audiobook (and book)…
I have no word to say what I experienced.

In fact I have.
I’ve never been so angry, I’ve never yell as much as I did towards a character.
I even felt rewarded when the chapters were about Mako. It was like being soothed after being brutalized by the previous chapter.
This book is just for that: a masterpiece. 

If you are triggered by domestic violence, rape, emotional abuse, gaslighting and incest, please don’t. Don’t read it. These are normally not triggering for me and despite that, I sometimes lost it because how pissed off I was.

Jacob Morgan did an amazing job with all the despicable MMCs. 
This is a duet narration. Michelle Sparks did also an excellent job to give life to this strong abused River.
It made 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Physical abuse, Addiction, Torture, Blood, Emotional abuse, Incest, Rape, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, and Toxic relationship

samlauren07's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.25

• Heavy trigger warnings for DV and Suicide
• I didn’t like the jump from one romantic interest to the other. It felt like bad timing. 
• The book was incredibly sad to read. It didn’t take a turn for the better till 3/4 of the way through the book. 
• I felt like the author repeated a “scene” from one of her other books.
• Mako was a great dynamic character. It felt like the wrong person with poor timing.
• 1.5🌶️ (the non assault scenes)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Blood, Sexual assault, Addiction, Violence, Gaslighting, Suicide, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Death

vouija's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Misogyny, Gun violence, Incest, Confinement, Murder, and Rape

mizfitzkay's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This book is triggering for a rape survivor and as a person who watched a friend stay in an abusive cycle. I couldn’t tell you how frustrated I was with the MC. Almost DNF’d because she was insufferable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Incest, Drug abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Death, Drug use, Grief, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Rape, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

Moderate: Body shaming and Confinement

Take this book in breaks. Dont read it in one go like I did.

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: Murder, Blood, and Domestic abuse

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

tanya_luvs_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Drug use, Murder, Pedophilia, Confinement, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, Gore, Incest, and Infidelity

ndg_0327's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Devoured in less than 24 hours. HD Carlton you cut me deep. Highly recommend the audiobook.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Incest, Animal cruelty, Rape, Physical abuse, Murder, Gun violence, and Blood

shasta2292's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

Negative points- felt that some character interactions were unnatural. Some minor plot holes. Wanted more basdassery. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Torture, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, Domestic abuse, Incest, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Misogyny

Moderate: Gun violence, Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, and Addiction

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Drug abuse, Grief, and Pregnancy