Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

10 reviews

valentinavl's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, and Incest

Moderate: Death of parent and Pregnancy

Minor: Domestic abuse

_michelle's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Incest, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical trauma, Dementia, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

buildingtaste's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

The Thirteenth Tale is a satisfying gothic send-up, complete with name drops of all the usual 19th-century suspects. However, by placing all the dark twists in the distant past, Setterfield keeps the book from being too tense; like the narrator, readers are encouraged to approach the story-within-a-story as a puzzle, and the "present" action is mostly sedate. Still, with its laundry list of grim events, this one is not for the faint-hearted. Mind the content warnings!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Bullying, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, and Infidelity

Multiple relationships are codependent, violent, controlling and incestuous/bordering on incestuous.

Major characters are revealed to be the likely product of incest and rape.

Multiple violent and disturbing deaths, self-inflicted and by others. Some characters live in isolation and neglect their home; the decay and unsanitary conditions are described in detail. Terminal illness is a major plot point. The death of siblings and grief is a major plot point. A character is institutionalized. A character is confined for a medical/psychological experiment. Multiple characters are shown self-harming as children and adults.

A character attempts to murder an infant.

rachel1's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Incest, Pregnancy, and Terminal illness

Minor: Death of parent

bre88's review

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

It’s not for everyone and a book I would need to read a couple times to catch everything. You have to power through the first couple of chapters but the book does become immersive and I don’t regret reading it. There’s multiple layers of stories and you feel yourself chasing to keep up like the protagonist.  I can’t say it was the best thing I’ve ever read; however, I can’t stop thinking about the story and characters. It was interesting and challenging and the kind of book you need to discuss with a friend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Grief, Violence, Child death, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Death, Mental illness, and Bullying

Moderate: Sexual violence, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Rape, Incest, and Self harm

Minor: Animal cruelty

mitchell_1's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Chronic illness, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Dementia, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Child death, Suicide, and Ableism

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Vomit

mrslyndyp's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Whilst the concept of this story may seem straight forward and somewhat predictable, the story itself is not! I found it totally engrossing as it twisted and turned it's way through the dark and often disturbing family history. 
There are references to sexual abuse and abusive relationships between family members but no graphic details are given. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, and Incest

Minor: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, and Child death

t_higgsreviews's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

5 Stars
CAWPILE = 9.43

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Terminal illness, Self harm, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Vomit, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Excrement, and Medical content

laurenleigh's review

dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Is there a more satisfying feeling than finally crossing a book off your TBR? Especially when it’s been there for years?! This deeply atmospheric novel did not disappoint. I only wish I had read it in the winter though. Its slow pace, its setting in the moors, and its numerous mentions of cocoa made me wish I was curled up in wool socks by the fire while reading this somewhat spooky tale. It wasn’t quite in sync with my summer vibes at the moment. If you’re a fan of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, or just a true lover of fiction in general, I recommend this one. It’s not just an homage to those classic works of literature, it celebrates that we all have our own stories to tell. Our birth and our life are a tale we’re constantly editing and inevitably mythologizing. We don’t even know ourselves what is “truth” and what is fiction at some moments, but there’s a magic nonetheless in finding special people to whom you can trust your story. The audiobook was lovely, and both narrators had terrific English accents. The ending was completely satisfying, which can ring false for me sometimes, but felt perfectly in keeping with this book’s trajectory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Abandonment, Terminal illness, and Child death

Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

mariebrunelm's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

When I decided to gift this book to a friend, I thought I might as well re-read it before parting with it. Dear me, I had forgotten how dark it was! But it's also a very elegant book, for reasons I can't quite point to.
The story is that of Margaret, a antique book seller who dabbles in biography writing for unknown people of the 19th century. One day she receives a very special invitation in the post: Vida Winter, the most famous writer of her generation, asks her to write her biography after years of misleading journalists about her past. There ensues a story about the stories we tell ourselves, those that shape us and those that we hide. It's an extremely dark character study of two women shaped by trauma and grief for things they can't always identify. But it's also a fabulous hommage to the power of literature.
Rep: lesbian MC.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship