Reviews with content warning for Blood - Sundial

It's a thriller, alright. Vivid imagery throughout, and the plot twists and turns till the very last page. Plot twists can sometimes feel unearned, but I think here they were all reasonable, and nothing felt too out of place by the end.

Content Warnings

liahopkins's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

I picked this book up more by chance, but I am really glad I did. It is less of a horror book and more of a slightly bizarre thriller with some paranormal tones (?), but it was still captivating from start to finish!
The characters are all very fleshed out and layered, they are all pretty unlikable (except maybe Mia), and literally none of them are good people. Still, you can understand why they do the shit they do (to some extent at least), so that made me hate them less.
There are so many themes/images used again throughout the story (mirrors, maggots, clocks) which made the whole writing very cohesive. The author was also very good at leaving small clues everywhere (especially in the Arrowood chapters), but mixing them up with red herrings. I was so captured, putting tabs on everything I thought was important to the plot, and writing down all my new theories. Most of them were wrong. But I loved going through all of my notes again and understanding what they were really alluding to.
Most of the twists were very surprising, but made so much sense at the same time (I said "ohhhh" way too many times). The only twist I really didn't like was the last one (

aka Annie being the evil child and not Callie

), I felt like it undid a lot of what the author had established before. I almost lowered the rating because of this, but since it was literally just in the last chapter, I decided to just pretend like it never happened. At some points, I also thought the overall topic of what is happening at Sundial seemed a little far-fetched, but reading the Author's note and seeing it was based on actual events, I feel like that critique can't hold itself. Overall, there were a couple of those little moments where I thought "is this realistic?", so maybe 5 stars is a little too generous of me, but I really, really enjoyed the reading experience, so I feel like they are justified.

Also I have a theory I will not budge on and that I just need to put out somewhere: Callie kept talking about Rob touching her eyes as if adjusting contact lenses, even though she doesn't wear them. And in one chapter, it says something about Rob thinking about getting coloured contacts and just continue living as Jack. I don't care what anyone says, I think Rob is actually Jack who just pretends to be Rob, because Rob was killed by 23. I will die on that hill.

PS: please note the content warnings because there are a lot!!

Content Warnings

c_adams's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad 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

Content Warnings

jinjejik's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I still don't know the purpose of the arrowwood chapters. they didn't add anything. I found them annoying and wanted 'em to be over to get back to the actual story. kept thinking I was missing something, that there was a deeper meaning, but no one online seems to have a better reading.

otherwise, the story had some interesting concepts and of course Ward's twists and turns. always like a book that keeps me wondering and guessing. I feel like the author really does not like dogs lol and i almost had to put the book down. it also has a v open ending, like in the middle of a scene.

notes/thoughts I took while reading:

they really got an MRI machine in the middle of the desert..

mia is experimenting on the dogs to remove bad/angry/vicious genes activated by suffering and terror.
I'm sure this is for Jack/whatever runs in their family to make them see the pale ones who make them do bad things. that is different from the dogs tho, how is that research supposed to translate?

what suffering has Jack/Callie endured to activate their genes? why only the oldest daughters? esp when Rob has endured significant suffering. I doubt the mad dogs have a supernatural element to their madness, at least it doesn't seem that way.

Rob and Jack's mom died when they were 4. was she sacrificed? did she have the ailment? it's weird she's from Britain, how will that play in? an English curse lol her being from a wealthy English family. I can't figure out the dad..seems like he's just a white American hippie? while Mia is Black from the South.

similar to the last house on needless street with family curses that make you hurt people. both books take place in US, but curses come from Europe (England and Italy). Last House takes place is wooded Washington, opposite from the California desert. same coast

"I dont know how to get out've situations I don't like."

all the shit about england was made up! Jack made up memories of mom. Falcon and Mia adopted them from psycho meth heads Lena/JACKlyn and Bert/ROBert. (we don't know how the twins ended up with the meth heads and I'm still unclear on why they wanted so many kids just to torture em..unless pale voices told them to??)

theory: they adopted the twins because of something in their blood, like the dogs
( WRONG! the twins were adopted first. Rob tried to kill Jack with a screwdriver and strangle Mia with wire...so Mia began experimenting on dogs in an attempt to "fix" / "save" / change the twins )

"I mistake intensity for passion"

Rob and Jack go from oneness and total understanding to basing life choices off of how much it will hurt the other. (we learn that this is intentional on Jack's part, her way of protecting Rob is to get Rob to leave)

I thought Jack was gonna be sacrificed, but I'm pretty sure she ODs. they still haven't explained why she couldn't leave sundial. (wrong again lol jack couldn't leave because the click stopped working on her)

they're both pregnant by Irving?? I should've seen that coming.

book starts off being mostly about Rob and Callie then becomes mostly about Rob and Jack.

Rob admits she'll continue to do drugs/heroin? while pregnant. (it's the only thing that helps since the click didn't work on her) the "puppy" farm was eventually taken over by drug dealers, that's where Pawel got the goods for him and Rob. I guess he'd had the click too.

pale Callie is real?! Rob had a miscarriage due to Jack beating her.

where does Rob get the money to buy truckloads of shit for Jack's baby?

jack gets one chapter like Marx got one chapter

Rob is dumb af to try to trick Callie..I don't understand why she wanted to lock callie in her room. I understand she's debating on whether or not to give her the last click.

after everything is out to Callie and she's locked Rob in her room:
pale Callie says "which one of them is she, Jack or Rob?" I don't get this. why does pale Callie visit but pale jack doesn't?

Content Warnings

thegayestghost's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

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