Reviews tagging 'Violence'

We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz

50 reviews

becca_cheyanne's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.0

This book... It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I was starting to think maybe it was an unreliable narrator. I also was starting to just get uninterested 3/4 through. The ending just left me feeling unsatisfied.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Sexual assault, Car accident, and Murder

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, and Death of parent

corriejn's review against another edition

3.5

Ended up finding it a bit better than I'd thought early into it-- some aspects felt a bit overly predictable/heavily foreshadowed, but there ended up being a couple of unanticipated twists here and there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, and Fire/Fire injury

heresyourletter's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.25

Fast-paced, compelling and hard to put down.

I wasn’t a fan of the ending though — it felt forced and rushed into a “happily ever after” that wasn’t quite believable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Drug use, and Incest

Main character is traumatized throughout the book, after surviving a violent sexual assault

, helping her friend (who murdered the assaulter) dispose of his body, then repeating the action on a trip where her friend claims to have been assaulted and subsequently kills the man. There are detailed descriptions of blood and gore.

She also has severe asthma and occasional panic attacks. Gaslighting and blackmailing are major themes

as the main character’s friend tries to manipulate her sense of reality

One character mentions several times during childhood when she was unfairly spanked for regular childhood behaviour. One character was orphaned at a young age after her parents died in a house fire. Several mentions of religious beliefs that Christians automatically go to heaven once they die, and non-Christians do not. One character is said to have died by suicide many years before the book begins. The main character throws up several times (the descriptions aren’t graphic). Brief mention of a character surviving thyroid cancer. A rabbit is found dead. It is implied that the rabbit was killed by a human. Several scenes at bars, drinking alcohol. Two characters take THC gummies. Brief mention of a character smoking pot in college.

One character was sent to a correctional institution as a child for “severe behavioural and/or mental health issues”. It is revealed that when the antagonist was 12, one of her friends deliberately set her house on fire in an attempt to kill the antagonist’s father, who was sexually abusing the friend. When she learns this, the main character wonders if the father was also abusing his own daughter. One character is pushed off a cliff (but is later recused). One character is pushed in front of a moving car. In an effort to avoid hitting her, the car swerves, knocking the attacker off the cliff (who later dies of her injuries). The car driver also goes off the cliff and is severely injured, but survives.

ariajb's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death, Pedophilia, and Suicide

lilawsahar's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

2.5

The beginning was really slow.

You could really tell that the character was traumatized by the way she kept bringing up the murder victims: Sebastian and Paolo. It got a little repetitive after a while. I knew right away that Kirsten was sketchy; it didn’t cross my mind that she murdered her parents until Jamie was brought up. Bone chilling. We never really got our answers if Kirsten was involved or not. I feel like she was. It seems like Kirsten convinced Jamie to set the fire. Idk.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal death, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, and Death of parent

ellyrium's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Car accident, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

bookishchaos's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Wow, the way this book gaslit me! I wasn't sure what to believe or who. Everyone was suspicious. I liked the book up until the ending, which was just kinda "meh" in my opinion.

I was expecting a huge plot twist like Emily hallucinated the attack and that's why Kristen was acting "fine". Or Kristen didn't survive her attack and Emily was having a psychological breakdown during the whole book, imaging she survived as a coping mechanism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Violence and Toxic friendship

neliadiedenise's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

Freakishly terryfying story. Straight out of life and sooooo normal at first. The book creeped me out as hell but that's exactly why I love it. Sooooo many twists. Wow, just wow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

miranda_444's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder

blueyogi's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol