Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

16 reviews

perth_is's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-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

4.0

I thought the writing was beautiful. The use of the phrase of being a “living dead girl” was haunting and I will be thinking about this for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

cecilyroseceillam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

This book was extremely well executed, I love the way it shows the effects of SA and pedophilia. I love how disconnected the prose is to show the characters mental state, how she doesn’t understand happiness and how she describes people not being broken like she is and unclean. I also like the descriptions of being a walking husk and just flesh and skin to be used. A very good read and I quite enjoyed it,I also found it interesting her sleeping with people as an escape and using the very thing that caused her trauma and how she started partaking in the abuse toward other children, so she wouldn’t be abused anymore.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

mossroot's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Living Dead Girl took me a little over an hour and a half to read. This book is BEYOND fast paced, you are so in the thick of it. Beware speed readers: every small sentence counts, and those words you know to look for won't be there. Cherish every sentence with this book not to miss a single moment. 

Every moment was throughly disgusting, and I could not put this book down. I truly recommend if you're already deep into the thriller horror concept, and if you're comfortable reading about very bleak scenes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

alicia447's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

thevampirereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Murder

giuliamarie's review

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment

lizzy_lizard03's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-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? No

3.5

This book was so dang sad. It’s a horrible thing for something to go though and it’s something that HAPPENS in real life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

erica_reads_things's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Not bad! This was a very interesting perspective on this sort of topic. Super sad, very tense and disturbing. Wasn't the best though, also wasn't the worst! A quick read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood

cursivewolf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

This was such a hard read, but I’m glad I stuck it out to the end. Not much to say about this book without giving stuff away, but god this was rough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

chloseencounter's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

Living Dead Girl has been on my TBR for so long, I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump and in the mood to sit down and read an entire book in one sitting so I felt like it was finally time to give this novella a try. 

I initially rated this book a 3.5 but the longer I’ve sat with it, the more impact it’s had on me. I’ll say right off the bat that this wasn’t  the most “fun” read in the world but the story was gripping and an interesting look into a kidnapping/abuse victim’s psyche.

 The way that “Alice” no longer cared about protecting others, she just wanted her own suffering to be over so badly was a bleak but realistic take on living in such a depraved way. Alice really was so deeply manipulated, there was so many times she could’ve gotten away but she was too blinded by her curated reality that she didn’t think it was possible. She was believed so deeply that her captor knew anything and everything even when he was not around.

There was some very interesting commentary in here as well about the bystander effect and how people should really be trying to reach out when they see something they feel may be wrong.

There were so many characters outside of Ray’s abuse that could’ve ultimately changed things for Alice. There was even a bit where she mentioned that victims on television were often blamed for not getting out of their situations sooner. People would say things about them like “why didn’t she say anything?” when every time Alice was in public it was a cry for help, even if indirectly, but people choose to look away from what makes them uncomfortable.

When Alice finally showed her humanity at the end of the story it made her all the more tragic and honestly the ending was probably about as good as I could’ve hoped for her.

I don’t think there was a world that she could’ve gone back to and lived successfully in but her being able to experience freedom before her death was bitter sweet. I cried when she tried to tell Lucy her name.

 

Overall, the read was quick and tense, the story itself isn't super plot heavy but if anything this was a very  interesting character study. I wouldn’t recommend this read to everyone, it was challenging and raw but that doesn’t mean these subject matters don’t need to be said or heard. This one was really a sleeper hit with me, I finished feeling as if it was well written but too abrupt however the lasting impact this novel has left on me is a lot more than I can say for many books.

I’d lastly like to commend the author on being able to tell a story with a lot of SA in it without having to go into descriptive detail about those actions once…things were alluded to, they were implied, they were said, but they were never broken down for us in a very detailed way. I think this makes the book mean more and feel less like it was created for shock value, as well as making this story more digestible to a larger audience. Just because this kind of stuff really does happen and we should speak about it doesn’t mean that we ever need to write detailed descriptions about non consensual  s*xual acts especially between adults and minors. This book definitely proves that there’s a way to say it without saying it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood