Reviews tagging 'Gore'

There Is No Devil by Sophie Lark

18 reviews

isabelleroyall's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Sexism, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

mae_123's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

ktkeps's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

jen1804's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Yesss, I thought this was really good! I adored Mara and Cole’s obsession with each other and how it only grew. I loved Mara’s development into the darkness and the overall air of insanity within this book.
We get more backstory of her childhood trauma too which is harrowing to read, as well as more of Cole’s journey and how he became who he is now. Questions are answered and loose ends are tied up and it was all just very well done.
Both Mara and Cole are deeply fucked up but the dynamic of them now being fucked up together is honestly so powerful, I loved. The lust transforms during this read into love. And the intense (and literal) ‘touch the one I love and you fucking die’ trope is all over this book from both sides, it’s great, I love that their unhinged passion is reciprocated by each other and that they’re a force to be reckoned with.
And the soundtrack whilst reading provided by Lark just transforms the experience! 
Epilogue was kinda insane but it just shows how fucked they both are and Mara’s officially popped all the way off.
Satisfactory ending? Yes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism and Drug use

golden_like_dior's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

lizslazylibrary's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

first of all this book had NO RIGHT to be that good. that’s it. it was amazing!! my brain is mushy and i can’t form a cohearent thought because all i’m thinking about is cole blackwell. i hate men but DAMN that man is IT! woooooooooooooo weeeeeeeeeee yessssssssssss 

sophie lark did it yet again when she wrote There Is No Devil. i want to write a well thought out review but that’s just not me. i want to scream and rant and rave about the books i read and that’s what i’m doing! the things i would let cole blackwell do to me... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, and Gaslighting

nisha_nee's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.75

Continuing where the story picked off from There Are No Saints, Cole and Mara are now living together while Shaw is still left on the loose with the officer in charge none the wiser. This final book in this duology couldn’t have been a more perfect addition and closing to this wonderful story. To be honest, I was hesitant in picking this whole duology up because of its story content (ahem sERIAL KILLERS!). So it was surprising how much I’ve enjoyed this story, the world, the characters, and the writing. This duology is my first taste with the dark romance subgenre and is it wrong to say I’m interested in more?? Anyway, I’m no expert on this subgenre seeing as I’m very much at a noob level but this book, considering the content, theme, and subgenre was surprisingly less gritty (which was fine to me because I prefer to get minimal gore as I can get) and less toxic if there’s ever a better wording for it. Knowing that it is a serial killer romance, I had no preoccupations that the relationships in this book would be any closer to healthy relationships and I don’t expect them to, however, I am at a loss of how Mara and Cole blew my expectations away. I adored this book because of the characters. I fell in love with them, their dynamics and I can’t get enough of them that I wish there’d be a spin-off series with Cole and Mara doing the occasional cameo. Please, author 🙏. On a final note, the author has discussed important themes in the story and I encouRAge you to take the chance with this duology. 

Pros: dual POV, great writing, if you love the characters you will love this second book, villain origin story 😉

Cons: too short! the author needs to write more books about Mara and Cole but here are the reasons I think readers may not like: numerous graphic descriptions of intimate scenes, less gory, gritty, and twisty unlike book 1, the plot picks off at the last 20%
Spice level: 🌶🌶🌶🌶 (frequent, focused, + descriptive)

Recommended for: those who are in the mood for something dark but also emotional and prefers character-driven stories (provided they adored the characters from book 1)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse and Torture

Minor: Abortion and Abandonment

anaya_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This book had more of a thriller vibe to it and I loved it. Mara is crazy and Cole is a literal psychopath but they are made for each other. Kinda love that they’re obsessed with each other. Once again, check trigger warnings

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting