A review by desdemonarose
The Teacher by Katerina Diamond

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I had low expectations for this book, but the story moved along quickly.  It is good in audiobook format since the narrator is very good.  I might have a lower rating if I read it myself, but maybe not.  It is a very dark book that covers dark topics.  It's a typical suspense story with the super evil bad-guy sorts, which you learn pretty much from the start.  Not a book if you want to read a story of redemption, but if you want a fast paced dark conspiracy investigative type novel then this one will fit the mold.  It does require some content warnings which I am adding (not sure of Storygraph shows them in the review or not).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Adding more detailed content warnings as spoiler, though the book does open with a pedophile (justifies himself with only photos and no touching) being murdered. There is no graphic description of sexual abuse, but there are torture scenes that I'm sure some would find disturbing. More in spoilers:

The book deals with massive homophobia and torture in an attempt to, "erase," perceived homosexuality. Those who are committing the acts are the antagonists, nothing is justified by the author. The book details the murder of these people and some of their actions with some pretty graphic detail at times. Though typical horror book level of detail, not torture porn levels per say (though of course that is subjective)