Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Perishing by Natashia Deón

6 reviews

nehaanna's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I’m not entirely sure what this book is attempting to accomplish. This is literary fiction with a speculative aspect and a fantasy-esque twist that fails to make any sense until the last 50 pages and is so poorly strung together. This book fails to draw the reader in, preferring to use complicated time jumps, stream of consciousness type writing, and sloppy philosophical waxing to make some point. Sprinkled along the way are references to historical injustices towards minority populations with reference to recent historical events of the 2020s. However, the social commentary is poorly done in my opinion. Nothing in this book seems to be executed well, everything falls abysmally short of the author’s well-meaning intentions for what this book could have been. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

adiajamille's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

It was fine. A lot of the language was inappropriate for the time period. It felt like they had a lot of ideas but weren’t sure how to execute them in a cohesive manner. Much of the historical events mentioned just felt thrown in   In an attempt to be impactful, but fell flat. The base idea was cool, and could’ve been great. Just needed a little more time to let the ideas simmer and flow. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lovealwaysadi's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Slavery, Medical content, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War

caffeinatedvibe's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

EDIT: After a few months now, I’ve bumped this down to a 3. I may even eventually move it to a 2 but for now I did enjoy the story and then concept but overall it was a little underwhelming especially with how it had been advertised. I think I had been expecting more of an adventurous plot that went into the magical realness more which is what hindered my love for this book. I may still recommend this, but I will be giving my own summary of the book. It’s definitely more of a historical fiction and a bit of coming of age with the overall plot and less about the magic of what’s going on. Which is okay I just wish I wasn’t expecting the magic. I could see this easily becoming a many part series that could take place in many timelines maybe even multiple povs which could help my rating of this book if I knew it were the background info for a more expansive universe but as a stand alone I was left wanting more. 

I liked the concept, the multiple perspective from the same person but different times, and the mystery behind it all. But I don’t think it satisfies me as much I would have liked. I definitely enjoyed it and would recommend it to friends I just felt like it ended abruptly right as I thought maybe the heart of the story was beginning. 

This may not be spoilers, but I just want to be cautious. I’ve seen some reviews not love Sarah’s perspective since it doesn’t become relevant until the end and for the most part I think I disagree. I really enjoyed hearing her talk about her experiences as the future self looking back and I think her story helps explain what’s going on with Lou. With that said though, everything she says is very vague and a lot of it you don’t understand until the end of the book so maybe it’d be worth a reread, but there were chapters that were hard to get through when Lou’s story was getting exciting and it felt like Sarah wasn’t adding too much to the plot. I know there were a lot of things that had to be vague in order to not spoil anything from Lou’s perspective but I think even a few callbacks at the end from Sarah’s perspective that would reveal more specifics would be nice so I wasn’t having to guess what might’ve happened. I prefer books that don’t give me all the answers but I also would’ve liked just a few answers. Like do I assume she killed her brother?? Also was confused by that plot line because the time jumping gets muddled so in that moment when he was explaining his backstory I could visualize where and who they were. There was also the plot of the woman being thrown in the water and that’s why Lou’s was called there but it was never actually explained, unless I missed something which is possible, so overall I just didn't understand why/what was going on. It’s still above 3 for me though slightly because I did enjoy the story I liked Lou’s journey for the most part. Mainly I just felt unsatisfied since I picked it up thinking it was about time traveling or some kind of magic of sorts and then it spent most of the story being about a girl just trying to figure out her life and who she is which would have been okay if the book description wasn’t heavily focused on the immortal aspect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Child death, Death, Racism, and Murder

Child death

a boy gets hit by a car. The accident itself isn’t graphic and it’s told through a 3rd person account but does describe mom being inside when told, dad was a firefighter that showed on scene and there is a funeral scene

Domestic Violence

This is a brief story told in one of the chapters so not a major part of the book and could be easily skipped. But we are told a story about a woman that was eventually drowned in a lake by her husband while she was pregnant. Her name is also referenced at another point in the book though briefly

Death

Both content warnings have been about specific deaths that have happened, but in general death is talked about a lot in this book. If that is something that is triggering then this might not be the best book. The main character is a journalist and for a good portion of book she covers only deaths like the obituary pages. She mentions visiting family members to be able to share their loved ones stories. Some might be simply natural deaths or car crashes etc. the point does try to focus on sharing their stores and who they were rather than gruesome details though. There are a few funerals of people she’s knows.

Suicide Ideation

This is more of a storyline that is seen in the future perspective. There does seem to be a couple failed attempts, but in general just the thought of not being able to truely die since she basically gets reincarnated every time. I believe at this point she has been alive at least for a few hundred years if not more

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

oatmilkdyke's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense slow-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

3.75

A book that explores many lives and the way our souls experience time. I loved the author's imagery and beautiful use of language. The story was reflective, and relevant to the time we are living now (with subtle references to COVID-19). I had trouble focusing and piecing some parts of the story together, especially with the climax. Definitely want to re-read to fully grasp this story! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gore, Slavery, Violence, Murder, and War