Reviews tagging 'Violence'

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

38 reviews

llewellareads's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Self harm, Torture, and Gore

Moderate: Child death, Animal death, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicide

slahlum's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Grief, Pregnancy, and Child death

rose_celeste's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked many things about this book. The characters, the universe, the unfolding story, the tense atmosphere that kept on growing more and more intense. I loved how odd events were described as perfectly normal, how the Isles felt isolated from the rest of the world. The visions that unfolded first as magnificent magical feats and then descended like furies upon the characters, nightmares all too real and tangible with horrible consequences.

However, two parts did bother me enough to feel a tad disappointed. (This might spoil too much for some, so be warned)

The causes for the sisters' demises surprised me. Nothing truly foreshadowed them enough for me that I felt that they fitted seamlessly into the world.

The Trickster God and the Goddess of Madness and Nightmares

are interesting and do fit in the whole worldbuilding, but I would've preferred some more lore being developed before having them suddenly being revealed as they were. 

The ending felt...off to me. All of it would've felt smoother if more had been explained throughout the story. I felt unsatisfied by the conclusion as the cause of the death in this House of Salt and Sorrows was rushed in the last chapters. Leaving important characters underdeveloped despite that they were the reason why it all happened. Had we been given more than a few crumbs, perhaps I would've felt more involved in the tragedies of it all and the consequences for this unfortunate family.

And for all I loved Cassius, the lad also desperately needed some more development.

All things concluded however, I devoured this book with great enthusiasm and would recommend it for those who enjoy darker shades of fairytales.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Murder

Minor: Infidelity and Violence

sweetchocolatez's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Gaslighting, Death, Pregnancy, Body horror, Grief, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Torture, Murder, Violence, Miscarriage, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, Suicide, Child death, and Panic attacks/disorders

winterhartarts's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Mental illness, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Sexual content, Stalking, Suicide, Body horror, Bullying, Death of parent, Dementia, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Sexism

kotletka_polina's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

That was a pretty wild run. 
It was a bit slow in the beginning but as the story progressed it grew on me and the last 150 pages I read in one sitting. 
I think the world building lacked explanation so it was a little confusing. A huge part of the plot is a mystery and I believe the reader should also be able to guess the twist while reading; however I don’t think it’s possible to fully guess it here because of the confusing world building and lack of complete information.
But I liked this book a lot. It felt like fever dream in the best way possible and I fell in love with the love interest. The second half of the book was really intense and it was hard to put down the book. 
Not sure what to expect from the sequel. I’m excited but also kinda scared.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Miscarriage, Child death, Classism, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Blood and Vomit

allisonbraun's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol and Miscarriage

m_harbaugh's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Violence, Alcoholism, and Blood

emilyreads15's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

5.0

Omg. I’m literally at a lost for words right now. This book was the weirdest and creepiest book I’ve ever read and I enjoyed it very much.

I randomly just decided to start this book one day, since I had recently gotten it in a giveaway and oh my gosh. I just didn’t expect this at all. Tbh it’s been so long since I read the synopsis, so I kinda just went in blind.

It was just the most interesting plot I’ve ever read. To start off the story is a creepy retelling of The Brother’s Grimm fairytale, ‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses.’ We read the story from Annaleigh’s pov and she is the 6th born of the 12 girls. Since I’m not too familiar with the fairytale, I didn’t know what to expect so ofc I looked up the original and it was already crazy itself. But the author took this twisted story and twisted it even more. I had no clue this book had horror elements to I was so shook while reading it.

On top of this, the author is a phenomenal writer. Like the level of writing and planning it takes to write a book like this is insane. So I definitely applaud her on that. There were so many twists and turns and I just kept being surprised. While I had my suspicions, I truly didn’t know who to trust and at times I didn’t even trust Annaleigh even though I was reading from her perspective. This book truly took gaslighting to another level. 

Overall I really enjoyed this read! At times the world building lost me a little bit. Also because there were so many sisters, I sometimes lost track and often couldn’t remember what they were supposed to look like. Some of the characters also got on my nerves *cough* Camille and Morella 👀 *cough*. However, I still really loved the book and in the end I definitely recommend this read. It was truly unlike anything I’ve ever read before!

Read this book if you want some mysterious fantasy gothic vibes with a little bit of horror. 

I also recommend this book to anyone who loves Belladonna by Adalyn Grace.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gaslighting, Violence, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Death

Minor: Death of parent, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Animal death

chezler24's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This book opens with a funeral and hints at ghosts setting me up for a book similar to gothic horror novels like Haunting of Hill House. I was ready to find myself lost in a new fantasy realm exploring the customs of the people of the Salt veiled with this overarching aspect of doom and gloom. The writing kind of lost me for a bit as it seemed to abandon the gothic horror elements in favor of random fantasy and love triangle plot lines. These aspects later came back around as the source of these elements was revealed but I did have to push through certain chapters to get to the big reveal. Ultimately, I feel like it would fall into the category of fantasy/gothic romance rather than gothic horror. The ending was enjoyable enough; however, the overarching plotlines were a bit weak at points and left me wanting certain aspects to be explored a bit more. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Violence, and Death