Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

36 reviews

meganpbell's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This is a downright disturbing and deliciously atmospheric work of folkhorror, from hoarder’s house to haunted woods, narrated with unexpected humor by a woman who just wants to keep her dumb dog safe. What I didn’t know until the very end is that this book is inspired by a 1904 classic horror short story by Arthur Machen, and while you can definitely enjoy this book without knowing the story, I felt like I was missing something once I knew!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Gore

Moderate: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Confinement

Minor: Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Child death, Infertility, Racism, Death of parent, and Dementia

aidareads's review

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

a solid 4 stars because it wasn’t bad, but i think i wanted to be creeped out and i wasn’t for the most part. still, it has very engaging writing style, and i loved foxy’s characterization. and i adored bongo. there was a lot of comic relief and fantasy tropes, so maybe that’s why it wasn’t extremely creepy. i still liked it tho! definitely an upgrade from the last books i’ve read lmao

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Dementia

Moderate: Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, and Racism

jessereadsthings's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Domestic abuse

Minor: Animal death, Racism, and Rape

traa's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Car accident

podanotherjessi's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

4.0

I completely bounced off the writing style of this when I tried reading it physically, but it was well suited to audiobook. It's very much a story being told, a little direct-to-reader, and that just works better for me with a narrator.
Beyond this, the premise is not dissimilar from a lot of Kingfisher's other horror. A 30-something woman goes through a breakup (that has almost no relevance to the story) and is drawn back to a place from her childhood and quickly learns spooky things are happening. Of those (A House with Good Bones, and The Hollow Places), this one is my favorite. The world and mysterious elements are just so much more fleshed out, and I love a creepy woods.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Gore

milanaaaah's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

4.25

If you like books like annihilation, you the scares are similar but the story is more confined to the characters in a silly and lovable way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Death

ilaxaria's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Dementia, Death, Alcohol, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Death of parent and Suicidal thoughts

readwithbells's review against another edition

4.0

 Then I made faces like the faces on the rocks, and I twisted myself around like the twisted ones, and I lay down flat on the ground like the dead ones.

That made my skin crawl. Folk horror (and turns out a pulp horror retelling, thanks authors note) done absolutely right. Sometimes the humour felt a little too much and there was a point between 60-80% where so many reveals were happening the storyline got totally convoluted for me. I took a six hour break and finished the book this afternoon and I’m so glad I did because that climax was fantastic. I haven’t had a horror book make me physically shudder in a long time and this was exactly what I was looking for: something spooky and horror-feeling where I’ll still be able to sleep at night. Potentially a bit long and certainly a bit repetitive, the atmosphere wasn’t great but the body horror was; I liked it. Never gonna look at rocks the same though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Chronic illness and Mental illness

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

Moderate:

forced pregnancy

shadowspinner's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Gun violence

Minor: Death of parent, Racism, and Emotional abuse

emzhay's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

The first 60% was a type of horror that really had me creeped out a scared to look out of the corner of my eye. It was thrilling, and I was sucked in. The last 30% I have mixed feeling about. The horror imagery still hit that same beat, but the plot direction and the cut-in humor was pulling me out of the story. I really don’t know exactly how I feel about the ending, but it’s not exactly positive. 

I wasn’t too fond of the narrator either, but I also didn’t hate her. Mouse’s attempted southern jokes came off as sly classiest comments and that irked me. They did disappear in the later half, but there were enough comments early on for her to leave a bad impression. 

I would rate lower, but I really did enjoy it a lot up until the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Racism and Classism