A review by dragonbloom
Brother by Ania Ahlborn

dark sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I really liked this book. The ending was a little too much for me, I suppose, whilst the foreshadowing for everything was all there... I don't see why Alice had to die, seems a little too much, felt rude.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Torture, Emotional abuse, Child death, and Confinement

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny

Minor: War

Abuse: Lots of abuse. The mother emotionally and physically abuses the family, especially the daughters. The father is less abusive, but still abusive, and certainly doesn't stop the mother. The brother abuses the main character. Alcoholism/alcohol: The main character's brother is an alcoholic. Animal Death/cruelty: Several animals are killed throughout the plot. Hunting and pets.

In the backstory chapters, Rebel kills a dog, quickly. This dog is explicitly stated to be neglected. Lauralynn keeps rabbits, one of which is killed, the others released. The rabbits were well taken care of until this point. Whilst hunting, Rebel tears the wing off a bird, dooming it to a slow, painful death.

All of these incidents come up again. Blood: It's a very violent book. Cannibalism: The family seem to eat the people they kill, and at one point there is graphic description of the MC preparing a body. Child death:

The mother kills Lauralynn.

Confinement: The family kidnap and torture girls. Incest: Incest is a running theme in the book.

The main character's adoptive sister tries to have sex with him, twice, whilst he is blatantly uncomfortable. It is fairly obvious, but the MC's love interest turns out to be his sister. Disturbing, though it never goes further than kissing in either case. Finally, the MC kisses and gropes what later turns out to be his mother's dead body, though he didn't know this at the time. It is revealed that the mother was molested by her father. The same man later molests Lauralynn.

Kidnapping: This is discovered early on, but

the main character turns out not to be blood related to the family, he was kidnapped, though he is not aware he was kidnapped until much later in the book.

The family also kidnap and torture girls before killing them. Misogyny: The family kills exclusively young girls and women. Rebel sometimes expresses misogynistic viewpoints. Necrophilia: This isn't on storygraph's list, but I feel like I should mention it.

MC is a necrophile. I don't believe he has engaged in full intercourse with corpses, but he expresses attraction to them, and at one point gropes one.

Sexual violence/rape:

Rebel rapes a woman after portraying himself as being her friend. Less violently, a woman comes onto the main character twice, after he attempts to get her to back off.

Torture: The family torture girls. Occasionally animals. War: The main character's father is a Vietnam veteran.