Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

56 reviews

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

ehoustonmyatt's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

jet_nebula's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• 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, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Violence, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm and Pregnancy

Minor: Child death

aformeracceleratedreader's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

Please check trigger/content warnings. 
Quite enjoyed this. The twists and turns kept me interested along with the sister dynamic. Will def be checking out more from the author. 
If you choose to listen to audio with the ebook, just a heads-up some wording is different from each other. Minor differences but could potentially throw someone off 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Self harm, Torture, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

Minor: Murder

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

heartofhorrors's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

Minor: Drug use, Miscarriage, Torture, Trafficking, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

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

grimdarkandgleeful's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Miscarriage, and Gaslighting

charlottesreadingweb's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated

3.25

I liked this book for the most part, but there are some caveats as others have mentioned. I agree that the Arrowwood chapters can be skipped entirely, although they offer some insights or "Easter eggs" about Rob and her sister. I agree that the book probably could have used more editing/parring down, especially in the middle, where it dragged somewhat. Overall, I think the book is an interesting comment on the concept of nature vs. nurture, and the cycle of generational trauma. Big triggers warnings for domestic violence, animal cruelty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal death and Child abuse

bxnnny's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

another crazy ass book by catriona ward that i will be thinking about for a long time. if you've read the last house on needless street, you know how nutty her writing is, but it's such a ride. this book goes back and forth between the past and the present, slowly piecing everything together. it becomes pretty clear at a certain point the major, key details but how it all came to be might not be what you expect. i couldn't tear myself away from this one, i was just truly enthralled in this story. the ending will leave you much like how you might have felt at the end of inception. please keep in mind there are A LOT of heavy trigger warnings in this (mainly animal cruelty/abuse/death and domestic abuse but there's many more so please check them all). i likely wouldn't have read this if i didn't already know catriona ward's writing previously to prepare myself mentally or hadn't been so interested in the story to be willing to push through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Gaslighting