Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce

13 reviews

the_pink_pharmacist's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Well this one is dark. I thought it interesting to have listened to the author’s post-word where she describes her book as being as close to what could have been as she could. It was pieced together from historic excerpts and a little bit of creativity based on the true story or serial killer Belle Gunness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Miscarriage

jbreyfogle's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, and Murder

baearles's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Infertility, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

aturb92's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Violence

kodi_rae's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Somehow fun and empathetic while also being gristly and tragic - it’s a worthwhile novel for true crime fans although I was disappointed to learn that a lot of the facts remain unknown. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Infertility, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

ekmoore11's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Miscarriage and Vomit

Minor: Pregnancy

sophiasoler's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

this was absolutely crazy and gave me so much anxiety. pretty good, but it’s heavy. also literally so slow omg

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

anger566's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Reading about her killing all those people: 😯
Me after learning that it was based on a true story: 😧
The beginning was definitely slow but man oh man what an ending! I have absolutely no idea how she got away with killing so many people. I'm still in shock writing this 😳

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism and Death of parent

It's about a serial killer so lots of descriptions of the murders, blood, death, etc.

At the beginning of the book Belle has a miscarriage after being beaten by the father (he didn't want to marry her after learning she was pregnant). Belle has sex with men throughout the book which is described. Belle's children die at the end of the book due to them eating poisoned oranges. It's mentioned that Belle and Nellie's parents died.

smblanc1793's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Serial killer fanfiction—a fun concept, but while well researched, this story adds so much fiction to the mix that I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to just make it into its own story. The quasi-biographical element of this book is part of what drew me to it, and I was a little disappointed with how much was just made up.

The story itself, though, is well thought out.  Belle as a character is surprisingly complex and well written—impressive considering how hard it is to make a murderous sociopath come across as any kind of sympathetic. 

Nellie as a character, on the other hand, felt like a crutch to me—a safety net in case people found it difficult to relate to our pernicious protagonist. But if you’re going to write about a serial killer, I say go all in. (If you’re looking for gentle, benevolent characters to fall in love with, maybe don’t pick up books about serial killers). The sections narrated by Nellie are, in my opinion, what renders the pacing less than superb and the book much longer than it needs to be. Though still a well developed character providing a different perspective, she took away from the overall impact of the book for me. 

All in all though, a pretty good story for true (and untrue) crime fans. It’s always good to see strong, independent women recognized within the boys club that is serial murder. #feminism, amiright?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

juliezantopoulos's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

I loved Camilla's You Let Me In and had super high hopes for this book. This is a really hard one to review as it's not the same writing style as her first book, topic, or genre. This is a fictionalized tale of a real life serial killer. I rarely read historical or true crime so I can't compare to many books like this but I DO think that Bruce succeeded in doing what she set out to. Which was to humanize Belle Gunness and to let you see inside the mind of a famous female serial killer. She also explored (fictionally) her relationship with her sister and what it would be like to love your sister even if you suspected her of horrible things. It's about men who broke Belle and drove her to atrocious lengths. 

This book was slow, the writing was repetitive and I anticipated more dramatic fictionalization of the story. There were placed that I thought Bruce could have really pushed the narrative but I understand her desire to stay true to the facts. And she did! This is almost an exact recounting of what we know of Belle and the murders. The only true fictionalization is her inner thoughts and conversations with others. However, those inner thoughts were very repetitive. The POV of her sister Nellie was very repetitive. I swear, if I had to hear about her back ONE MORE TIME. Still, I enjoyed the audiobook and if you like true crime or books about serial killers this may be your perfecct book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Blood, and Murder