Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - The Shards

OH MY GOOD GOD. This book is PHENOMENAL, but needs to come with some serious trigger warnings - if you want a spoiler free description, think of a cross between ‘American Psycho’, ‘The Secret History’, ‘These Violent Delights’, and then add some teenage nihilism, drugs, sex, and private-high-school rich-kid drama.

Admittedly, there were a few points where I actually had to stop reading, but that comes with reading Bret Easton Ellis.

Ellis is gifted at describing moments in time, and at capturing a ::feeling::

This is a complete and utter mindfuck, yes, but if you’re prepared for the dark stuff, i could not recommend this more. I read this pretty much non-stop for 6 days, and my copy of the book is now heavily annotated and highlighted (and drenched with my tears - and my tea when I spilled it in shock).

Nostalgic, lustful, and extremely powerful - literally couldn’t recommend this more.

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tgyll's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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not_to_day's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

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nomonbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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 well written, I just didn't like it. I didn't enjoy the gore and the tone or the people. I wanted to keep reading and that's pretty significant given what I didn't enjoy but also I'm so so glad I finally finished it. People who like thrillers may like this.

Also in regards to what happened (spoilers for ending)

I am like 100% sure in my mind at least that the trawler were the adult cult members and this was a story about a bunch of messed up kids left to their own devices too much, not cared for and adultified resulting in horrible conclusions. Everyone (of the children) was a victim here. The violent crime we see on page committed by a child is Brett murdering Robert. And that was a huge failure of every adult involved that let it get to that point. (And I know he's old enough to take responsibility for that somewhat but as with any crime in the real world committed by a 16 year old thecl context is so so important - and I know Robert has been accused of sexual abuse and I'm not absolving him from that responsibility but acknowledging that he was a victim here too from his father, and from the cult).

I don't think Brett attacked Susan and Thom, as it seems a bit random and out of character for him and it's more a further example of how things can are and will spiral in absence of I don't know, adult responsibility and supervision and putting it all on kids. The paranoia that seeped into their relationships and lack of trust for eachother and I think in the world generally to look after them.

They consistently had absent parents, drug addict parents, parents who are perpetrators of sexual abuse, alcoholic parents. The level of neglect is overwhelming, the absence of modeling of healthy interactions and relationships. The total lack of guidance from any adult in my opinion is what got them to where they ended up.

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