Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

83 reviews

aerlune's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Trafficking

bittie_bee's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Miscarriage

Minor: Drug use

carl_still_reading's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Sundial is a mixed bag for me. Whilst I enjoyed most of it, some parts didn’t work out for me during it. While I was hesitant whilst listening, by the end everything comes together and gives us a final shocking reveal. 

It explored toxic family dynamics really well and reminded me of Sharp Objects and the inspiration it draws from it. 

However I did find the flashbacks and Arrowood sections to be slow,weird and sometimes boring. Whilst I appreciated the explanation of Rob’s childhood, I wish the flashbacks were shortened down and the Arrowood sections taken out, as the story within a story didn’t really add anything to the main story it was trying to tell. 

Overall I did enjoy my time with Sundial and the ending definitely had me shook in typical Catriona Ward fashion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

livlamentloathe's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

Until Rob and Callie got to Sundial and the flashback story started, I thought this was going to be an ableist story about mental illness. But it’s not that simple. It’s twisty in an unpredictable way. There’s enough going on that I was tricked into not knowing what would happen next! I’m typically ahead of the twist and find myself disappointed to have been right. But book isn’t about “a twist.” It’s not even a multitude of twists, although kinda. It’s a whole lot of fucked up normality that stewed in the heated desert of Sundial until finally… you know.

This was a very long book, and I wasn’t interested at turns. I put Baby Teeth down for the very reasons I didn’t enjoy the start of Sundial. But this story swerved past the ease of mom and daughter dislike each other. It kept going and going and going. When you think you know the truth, there’s still more buried. And ya know, isn’t that just the way (of people)? We’re all more complex than what others see us as. Callie doesn’t know everything about Rob, and Rob doesn’t know everything that is Callie, or Jack, or even Annie. The only simple thing is Irving. Trust a man to be violent and predictable. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

Minor: Death, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

wperdue92's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Total mind f. I’m mad at myself for not seeing the ending. Serious book hangover now 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Blood

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

asolis's review

adventurous challenging mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

audreyesp's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

keen's review

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Drug abuse, Self harm, and Trafficking

ellekiriel's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting