Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

79 reviews

chrisljm's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

2.5

This was a well written story, but it’s not something I enjoyed. The vibes were just so terrible, I wanted to throw up a few times. It was as if Scott Hawkins heard the phrase “until the room stinks” and wanted to literally infuse that into the very core of the book. 

The best part of the book, for me, was the resolution to the mystery of what happened to Father. It seemed like a great conclusion, only to find out I still had ~150 pages left. I know part of the premise is Carolyn finding her humanity again, but since that arch is set after the climax of finding out about Father, the juxtaposition in tone of these two parts seemed very strange to me and made me enjoy the last quarter a lot less. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cursing, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Confinement, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Gun violence, War, Torture, Suicide, Rape, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Bullying, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Death of parent

Minor: Slavery, Car accident, and Cancer

dananator13's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Suicide, Murder, Torture, Child death, and Rape

mondovertigo's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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: Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Rape, Murder, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence and Death of parent

Minor: Car accident

ryn_bow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Death, Blood, Gun violence, Drug use, Child death, Suicide, Murder, Animal death, Torture, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Rape

hawkerkt's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, and Self harm

the_one_krissy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

What the heck did I just read?! This book was nothing like I expected, and it was one of the craziest experiences of my reading year so far. I honestly couldn't put it down, and the plot twists were insane and absurd and, somehow, worked really well all the same. I actually don't want to reveal anything about the plot, because I think this is one of those books you should go into without knowing what's in store for you to get the full experience.

It's a whole bunch of crazy, though. Crazy but the kind of crazy that keeps your eyes glued to the page. Be warned though, this book is entertaining but also stuffed to the brim with sick and twisted cruel things, and those who are particularly sensitive to cruelty against children might want to skip this one altogether. It's very brutal in places.

The characters of this book I really enjoyed, even if some of them - okay, most of them - are totally bonkers. Erwin was my favourite, but the whole cast was excellent. Overall, this book really gripped me and was very close to a five-star read... I'm not even sure what it is that I felt was missing. Some elusive little spark, maybe, that tips the scale from an excellent read to a sublime one. Still, this was an absolutely wonderful book I enjoyed with mixed feelings of slack-jawed admiration and abject horror.

You underestimate linguists and librarians at your own peril. Just saying.

And I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open when this author publishes something new.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Child death

Moderate: Violence, Torture, and Gore

Minor: Rape, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Animal death, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Death, and Car accident

bearish's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense

• 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

Dangerous Librarians, Selfish Gods, Academy for Dark Powered Children Run by Suspicious/Morally Grey Father Figure, Inadvertent Cosmic Horror, Narrator with a Secret, We Love it When a Plan Comes Together, Playing the Long Game, Friends to Enemies, The Talking Lion is Not a Jesus Stand-In, See This is Why We Need Term Limits, A Malice that Has No Bottom

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Animal death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and War

salm0n's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-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

4.5

Honestly, I'm really surprised I liked this book. It's not my normal style and I don't know if I'd ever pick up something similar again but the world building was exceptional!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

logarithmic's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Drug use, Murder, Sexual violence, Suicide, Child death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Rape

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

I really dislike using r*p* as character development and this book uses that a little bit. So hated that. Also kind of hated throwing sex/peens in the story too. Like no I didn't need to know that one character could not get erect no matter how much the other character involved tried in any level of detail, but here we are.

Also wasn't a fan of making a large portion of carolyn's motivation being her romantic crush

. 
But overall the book was okay. Super slow going, but the idea was good. I understand needing quite a bit of the back stories leading up to the present time now that I've finished it, but while reading, it made the story drag on a little. It also kind of feels like a couple ideas were thrown together that didn't get fully fleshed out, but the main thing of the book is

creating/raising/training a god or a god-like being. It also really embodies the meme "I want to punch god in the face"

. People are saying it's weird but I didn't find it so much as it was just kind of graphic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Child abuse, Cursing, Violence, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Drug use, Kidnapping, Suicide, Blood, and Confinement

Minor: Sexism