Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

13 reviews

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

hellokatya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

the only reason this doesn’t have a 5 star rating is because it did have some lulls in it — otherwise, this book is beautiful. would highly recommend. 
beautiful tale of mother and daughter, of sisters, and escaping the path that’s been laid out for you. so gorgeous please read it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Kidnapping

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

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

the_tea_collector22's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

1.75

While I enjoyed the twist at the end quite a bit because it had intentionally mislead me and subverted my expectations of the characters, damn was this book sooo slow the pay off  at the end almost doesn’t feel worth it. It was a struggle to get through at many moments, where the tension in the tone wasn’t taught enough to keep propelling me forward. It alternates perspectives and time where a good chunk of the book is retelling Rob’s life to Callie interspersed with their present day thoughts and feelings, but the retelling moments felt so long and drawn out to get to the meat of the story/ backstory. By the time we get to the end so much feels like filler (like the Arrowwood chapters never felt like they paid off for me, I still don’t get them), the book could’ve been cut down by 100 pgs and not lost what makes the twist at the end enjoyable- if anything it likely would make it more enjoyable since the pacing would be quicker. 

I think the concept was there, but the pacing was so slow and drawn out rather than punchy- if it was a more complicated storyline and punchy I think I would have liked it more. 
Also kind of wish the small cliff hanger at the end was given more resolution, but I also understand that being a stylistic choice. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

racl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

Heavy subject matter all around, but I really enjoyed the way the story unraveled, revealing the truth bit by bit in ways that never felt out of the blue. Every revelation feels right rather than done for shock value.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use

bookishloz's review against another edition

challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

kermit_the_wrong's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

Never really *got there*. It had potential but just fizzled out somewhere along the way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Infertility, Sexual content, and Abandonment

fi_reads_books's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Blood, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

imstephtacular's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol