Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Corrupt by Penelope Douglas

109 reviews

briterbrat20's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

I loved this book, but honestly at first I had a love hate relationship with the 4 horsemen… But once I kept listening I fell in love with all 4 men!!! Damon is still kind of iffy for me… I honestly just love Penelope’s writing… what you find out about damon explains so much….

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

jessanicolesingh's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

hilary89's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

3.0

I liked the story fine but the male narrator really ruined the audiobook for me. His voice for Rika was so cringey it totally took me out of the story. I think I’ll continue the series at some point, but just read it on my kindle instead.

Also docking a star for the constant and obnoxious song references. Note to authors: no one is impressed with your (in this case, terrible) taste in music. Moreover, name-dropping songs totally takes readers out of the moment. If they don’t know the song it adds nothing to the scene, and worse, if they do know the song and dislike it then that can ruin the scene. Show us the type of music with your description rather than telling us the exact name of the song. Unless it’s a universally known artist, but still leave the song up to the reader’s imagination, ie. “A Bob Dylan song came on over the radio.” Name-dropping song titles just makes your writing sound super amateur.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Grief

honeybeewitched87's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

one_more_chapter96's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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

3.75

Fairly well written and an interesting plot with a lot of dark elements emotionally/psychologically. I liked the points where Rika and the Horsemen worked together and were bonding, and I loved the elements of Kai & Michael. The push and pull with Michael was hot but a bit frustrating at times with him being so emotionally constipated. Overall an easy read with a suspenseful and spicy plot.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

emma_lynne's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Car accident, and Death of parent

amanda_reads13's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Three years ago, 3/4 horsemen were arrested and thrown in jail. Now they are out to get revenge on Erika (Rika), the woman they blame. 

We flipflop between the present and 3 years ago. It is within those snippets of the past that we learn about the men's motivation. They believe that Rika is responsible for 3/4 of them ending up in jail.

For some stupid reason, they film their "pranks" and two videos get released.

I felt as though the characters were lacking depth. We don't really get much background information on the men and an idea of what is motivating their behaviour. These men are cruel and horrible to everyone, especially women. There was so much potential to demonstrate the depth of these characters, it comes out in the very end when we get a flashback in the epilogue of

Michael taking care of Rika when she was 13

. We needed more of this depth to really connect to and want to understand these me. Unfortunately, what we get is a bunch of impulsive and misogynistic men who try to justify horrible and abusive behaviour. 

We get a snippet of why Damon is the way he is within the last chapters of the book. We learn why he is so angry that Rika has "invaded" the group of men, and his fear of his brotherhood being ripped from him. But his character does not have any growth at all and these limited glimpses into his past do not redeem him.

his mother was abusing and raping him as a child.

 

Rika was incredibly naive and annoying. She is not the strong woman that she thinks she is. She is impulsive and seems to have no survival instincts. She is incredibly immature and throws tantrums when she can't get her way (ie. Running into the gentleman's club when she wasn't allowed in). She is determined to live her life on her own and by her own rules, but panics the second her money is gone, because she is actually completely incapable of providing for herself. Plus, she forgave these men WAY too quickly.

I did really like Alex. She was unapologetically herself and had no shame about what she had to do to pay her bills.

(escorting)

. She owns her life/decisions and was a complete badass. I think her character really highlighted all of the weaknesses in Rika. 

Overall, the plot was interesting and there was a lot of potential. Unfortunately, the characters were lacking depth and I just couldn't get past the their lack of growth. The sauna scene (iykyk), was very spicy, but otherwise the romance fell flat and was not really believable. 

Tropes: found family, revenge, brotherhood

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

neness's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Alcoholism

ellavlind's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Jävligt bra, mötte med något ännu bättre när den blev lite tråkig (den va inte tråkig ofta) och glimpsarna av 3 år tillbaka och nutid va bra timing. Gillade epilogen den va söt.
The catacombs scene och steam room/sauna scene va ju de mest… intressanta

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Mental illness, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

bookishemmy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Rape, Blood, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Animal death