Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Small Game by Blair Braverman

62 reviews

johnny_harker's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

aqtbenz's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Excrement, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

antitheticaldreamgirl's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Sexual assault

zigzagzmak's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

3.75

An interesting read! I'm glad I picked it up, and the audiobook was a great listen. The reader had amazing character voices and it really felt like she was acting the book. 

I felt like the author didn't know what genre to write this story in, so at times it feels a little disjointed. It wasn't quite horror but it was dramatic but not really a drama either. I don't know where I'd place it even after reading it. 

None of the characters were particularly likeable either, which isn't automatically an issue, but I found it hard to root for Mara, since she felt like an incredibly unreliable narrator. She was constantly lying to the other players (especially to Ashley) and possibly even to the reader too. I enjoyed Kyle

but then he dies so early on, so that was a bummer.

Bullfrog was also interesting to me, but he's not in the main frame of the story for the majority of it, just sort of right off to the side. 

I also felt like the ending

wasn't satisfying. If you want to write an ambiguous ending to your story, then write it ambiguously. Don't tell us what's going to happen in a few short sentences and then be like "who knows what's gonna happen next!" Because you know who knows? The audience! Because you told us! But you aren't going to explain what actually happened to these characters to strand them? That's what I would have rather had information about, not that they find a ginseng farm.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Medical content and Gun violence

maggies's review

adventurous challenging mysterious tense fast-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

Back when I still used Twitter, Blair Braverman was one of my follows, and I loved her threads about dog sledding and the outdoors. She's an incredible storyteller, and Small Game, her first novel, really lived up to that for me. While I would never participate in a show of this kind and I'm not outdoorsy by any stretch (I always say I'd prefer to go first in an apocalypse), I was captivated by Mara and the other "survivors" and their creativity and problem-solving. In an episode of You're Wrong About, Blair said—paraphrasing here—that nature doesn't feel any animosity towards us and that's comforting to her. After reading this book, I can absolutely see what she means. I wouldn't quite call this a thriller, but it was very thrilling just the same.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Vomit, Death, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Murder

haave's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Gun violence, and Animal death

princess_marie's review

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-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? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death and Blood

Minor: Excrement, Vomit, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Gore, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Cursing, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Infidelity and Sexual content

erinoconnor's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

3.75

I read an advanced uncorrected proof copy - so I’m not sure if anything changed with publication, that being said - I really enjoyed the story. I wanted more and wish there was a more fleshed out ending, but I appreciate the mirror image of the beginning at the end. Some things seemed rushed and not fully answered - I want to hear EXACTLY what happened to Lenny and the crew, while I think it’s probably their last theory about money but STILL! - but I thoroughly enjoyed this read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Medical content, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Sexual assault, Rape, Blood, and Sexual content

ajdenson's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? No

5.0

My worst fears, all wrapped up in a single novel. Great writing, solid character development, the plot was pretty good.

It's nice that the book ends on a happy note, as there's a lot of traumatic stuff that happens throughout the story and I stopped being hopeful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail