Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

34 reviews

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

annie_reads_books's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

asolis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

reggiethebird's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It's a thriller, alright. Vivid imagery throughout, and the plot twists and turns till the very last page. Plot twists can sometimes feel unearned, but I think here they were all reasonable, and nothing felt too out of place by the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Gun violence, Self harm, Vomit, and Trafficking

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

heathercahill's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

thegayestghost's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

elle_e_d_light's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.5

Like Ward's other books, this book is DARK. If you are sensitive to animal cruelty or domestic abuse, you should probably stay far away from this book because it has both of those throughout the whole story. 

If I had to categorize this book, I'd say it best fits into Psychological Horror. Emphasis on the "horror". I won't say I enjoyed reading it—I hate animal cruelty—but I thought it was very well written and very good for the genre. I think I liked "Little Eve" a bit more than this, but that's because I loved the more gothic feel of it. I can't decide if I think this one is slightly better written. I liked "Little Eve" and "Sundial" far more than "Last House on Needless Street", which I didn't much care for. From the other reviews I've seen, it seems to be that the more someone likes "Needless Street", the less they like "Sundial" and vice versa.

While I thought this book was good, it's really not the type of book that one recommends to people. At least not without several content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse and Medical content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

Part of the plot deals heavily with the MKUltra experiments—specifically the remote controlled dogs part. It was animal cruelty of the highest order. But anyway, the animal cruelty and testing in this book is based off of real-life events.

rachelwierick's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

katyannreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail