Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

45 reviews

lilias's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I don’t know if reading two books by an author is enough to allow for a pattern to be detected, but even after reading my first novel by Catriona Ward, The Last House on Needless Street, I started to suspect one thing I needed to be as a reader of her books, and that is patient. Sundial further confirmed my theory.

I almost quit The Last House on Needless Street, except I never stop reading a book for the very reason that I’m glad I continued. I hated the first third or so. I read it thinking it was being weird just for the sake of being weird, it was irritatingly oddball. Then towards the middle I settled in to it, still thinking “wtf,” but in a more subdued voice. By the end of the book I thought it was so good. So I approached Sundial with this experience in mind. I had a similar experience with Sundial as I did with The Last House on Needless Street, I had this bubble of “wtf” over my head for a lot of it, but since I had learned to trust Ward, my overall experience was more enjoyable throughout. 

It is a story about mothers and daughters, and, being a relatively new mother to a daughter, those stories hit me in a certain way. I was interested the whole time, and I’ve never read a book like this. 

But a few things take off a star for me: first, I hate reading about animal abuse, and there is a lot of it throughout this book. In her afterward, Ward explains her reasoning for including it, but I still could have gotten the message if it had not been so graphic and so central. I suspect this is the same part of me that doesn’t like gore in movies but loves eerie suspense.

The second part that really irked me were the Arrowood parts. They stuck out to me as totally unnecessary, though I could have missed a very good reason to include them. But until someone gives me a good reason as to why they were included, I think they took away from the flow of the book, and a smoother narration would have made this book so much better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Gore

maregred's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, and Infidelity

Minor: Gore, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

kds247's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. It was well written and had some really interesting twists

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death

laneychaney's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infertility

jrocbutterfly's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book passes a little slowly at the beginning but does not take long to Amp up to a full throttle roller coaster. Told from 2 perpecrives, one of Rob and one of her daughter Callie. Sundial is a terrifying tale of the question, does human experience or true nature make a person evil. Or is it a little bit of both. Ward keeps you guessing through the whole book on what is true, what you truly know, and what really happened. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Self harm, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

jesselyn's review against another edition

dark sad medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

lionfish_22's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

marselise's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Murder

Moderate: Gore and Infidelity

eggplantia5's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.5

A creepy and tense exploration into families and sisterhood mixed with a little spookiness and science.  A perfect read near Halloween.

Everyone is kind of the villain, (except Callie), but everyone is also trying their best. You don't really get to know Irving and find out why he's so terrible, although maybe just being a white male from a rich family is enough characterization?

The story unfolds well, even when I thought I figured out the twists in advance, there was additional color that made the payoff satisfying.

Borrowed from library, could see myself buying in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Medical trauma

annie_reads_books's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail