Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh

6 reviews

liza's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

As a lover of The Originals, Twilight and Historical Fiction, The Beautiful checked all of my boxes. While this was the first novel in the series it sucked me in and sets up well for the continuation for the next book.

While there are still so many unanswered questions, which are all annotated in my book, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to put the pieces together as more and more was revealed. Even the main character, Celine, has secrets that are not spelled out until later on into the series.

The characters that we meet such as Bastien and Odette are intriguing. While we only see a few of them on a regular basis, it is hard to not notice the love and loyalty they share.

I immediately started the next book in the series and I cannot wait to share my thought on that one too!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Blood, Stalking, Sexual assault, Death, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Confinement, and Gore

siglerbooknook's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Minor: Death of parent and Abandonment

shorts_family's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I would consider this story to be pretty middle-of-the-road as far as vampire novels go. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't finish it, but it also wasn't so enrapturing I couldn't put it down. I think my main issue is with how slow the pacing is, I feel like there were several chapters that could've been removed altogether and it wouldn't have altered any significant part of the story. No spoilers, but there was one good twist/reveal and two twists/reveals that I felt had absolutely no buildup to them whatsoever, so they didn't feel satisfying at all, unfortunately. I loved the dynamic between Celine and Bastien, and there were moments of  the book that were genuinely funny, but overall I wanted to be pulled into the book more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Rape, Racism, Violence, Murder, and Sexual assault

Minor: Racial slurs, Cursing, and Death of parent

ok7a's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Stalking

Minor: Rape, Death of parent, Racism, and Kidnapping

stormywolf's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious medium-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

4.0

 Audiobook Read by Lauren Ezzo
Unabridged Length: 13.2 Hours
Listened at 2x Speed

Read my full review at The Wolf's Den

Overall, I have no complaints. A stellar narration, nailing tons of accents and emotions, was enough to put this production in my recommendations, to say nothing of its value as a pronunciation guide. With the emoting, especially in horror and action scenes, the volume and speed of reading does go up a bit, so that's something to keep in mind if you're not reading along, or at an increased playback speed. But if you're looking for an audio that offers a solid voice performance, this one should definitely be on your short list. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death

Moderate: Body horror, Rape, Sexism, Cursing, Gore, Murder, Stalking, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, and Racism

nebraskanwriter's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Violence, Stalking, and Racism

Minor: Rape