Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Dinner by Herman Koch

88 reviews

afabbi's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The writing is great, the story is interesting and told from an interesting perspective, but the characters are bad people who don't have any development throughout the story

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Classism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, and Violence

Minor: Blood, Chronic illness, and Child death

mrsmishler's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Racism and Racial slurs

missgrangerr's review against another edition

Beyond boring!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

corinth113's review

challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Holy…wow. Just finished it, and I feel…bad. Great writing, great tension and suspense building, and really well done but holy cow.

All vibes. 

Bad ones, but done in a very well crafted way with slow, disturbing builds, and a dull, slightly sickening atmosphere. You almost don’t notice at first, and then there’s one reference to a film that makes you go “wait” and then it just gets worse from there (in a good way??)

Not really disturbing in the “trigger warning” sense, in case anyone’s wondering. Anyway, great writing as you get to be in this guy’s head for an evening at dinner with brother and their wives. I’m rambling, but it’s because I’m so quietly shook. Read it! Enjoy it…it’ll probably make you feel as satiated and as flabbergasted and as guilty as an overly expensive dinner would with the brother you obviously can’t stand at a place where the portions are way too small to begin with.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Rape

vantereads's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, and Racism

hannahpeterson's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Pregnancy and Abortion

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Sexual harassment, Racism, Abortion, Sexual content, and Addiction

Minor: Pregnancy and Pedophilia

mjverrall's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I can’t stop thinking about this book. It left a lot of open ends and questions but in a very intentional way. I couldn’t stop reading even though the characters are all absolutely terrible people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Mental illness, Classism, and Racism

miamark's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Child abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

h4ppycupcake's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

This read like a Dutch take on American Psycho. Not for the faint hearted. I didn’t find any of the characters particularly interesting and I didn’t end up feeling satisfied with how the story concluded. There was some interesting commentary regarding how society judges who can be considered an “innocent victim,” but it was not a pleasant character revelation. Truth be told, there were no pleasant parts of this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Classism, Death, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Gore, Torture, Body horror, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcohol and Cursing