Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Dark Lover by J.R. Ward

13 reviews

alejandra_guerrero's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

5.0

 I really liked it. Some chapters felt a bit unnecessary, though. The action is good, and the spice is well written. There’s a good balance between romance and plot, and I’m looking forward to reading about the rest of the brothers, who are giving me Backstreet Boys vibes. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny, Rape, Torture, Police brutality, Murder, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

witcheep's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I've first read this book about ten years ago (and it was written almost 20 years ago!), and on this reread the story was as captivating as I remembered. Nowadays it might be put into the spicy romantacy genre, and as such it fits multiple popular tropes (e. g. mates, touch-her-and-die) and feels delightfully multidimensional and fresh: the FMC isn't a helpless damsel in distress even though she is introduced to a whole new world of vampires and needs guidance.

The worldbuilding is interesting and the plethora of characters is well-rounded with interesting multidimensional personalities. Especially disability is written very respectfully as a normal part of the characters' lives into the plot. I think I'll reread the series further soon.

It is worth mentioning, though, that some of the wordings and mindsets especially around lgbtq+ community (

brief mentions/slurs in dialoque

) and women's standing in the society (both in human and vampire ones; women characters are either

innocent as virgins, mothers/spouses or whores

) feels very prejudiced and condemnatory at times.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

innae's review against another edition

4.0

I have been recommended this series by several folks.  One just recently started a re-read and didn’t love this one as much as some of the others in the series.  As I liked this one quite a lot I think that bodes well for a fun read in to the future.   

This has a lot of explanation, as we are getting the world building, but I liked a lot of the characters…in particular Zsadist and Butch.    I will be interested to see where this goes moving forward. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Sexual content and Violence

Minor: Animal death and Torture

jamiebrito's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

1.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

glutenfreemaggie'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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

rachelgreenreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This was really high quality garbage. Like, it was very cheesy and trashy but the writing was good and the story was well done. There were some things that should have been very cringey, but it went past cringe and into camp, so those bits were actually hilarious. 

But I thought the relationship between the MCs developed well, there was some good hurt/comfort, and the disability representation was surprisingly well done. 

I hated Butch tbh, but maybe I was supposed to? I’ve heard he develops throughout the series. Overall very enjoyable read, but would only recommend to friends tolerant of the cringe/ generally some offensive stuff that just didn’t age well. 

Ps. There’s a lot of sexual assault threat/ attempts floating throughout the book. None from close characters, but still enough to give someone the ick for sure. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexism, Police brutality, Medical content, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Torture and Pregnancy

There’s a lot of sexual assault threat/ attempts floating throughout the book. None from close characters, but still enough to give someone the ick for sure. There’s also a lot of misogyny and chauvinism

mostly by Butch, but the way most of the vamps talk about women is not great

. There is also a lot of whorephobia and violence against sex workers in the book.

by the villain(s) but also one of the inner circle, Zsadist, though his actions are not confirmed.

waterwolves's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Torture and Toxic relationship

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

I don't really know what to say about this book.  It's the first one I managed to pick up and finish in a while so it had that going for it but part of that might have been that I wanted to see where the trainwreck go.

So many things were conveniently coincidental.  It was full of tropes that I hate, like fridging, dubious consent, insta-lust/love, etc...

The take on vampires was different I suppose but the secret society based enemy was decidedly wacky.  Will not be continuing the series.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

marareading's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I really enjoyed this. It is a fun vampire romance. I loved the new take that the vampires don't feed on humans, I haven't seen that in a vampire story before. I also liked that there were the cops, the humans,  the lessers, and the vampires. All balanced and all had a different part of their story. They all came together we'll. It has a great balance of plot and spice.

this story is mainly about Beth. She is an orphan. Half human, half vampire. Yet she doesn't know it. Wrath has been charged to look after her and protect her as she goes through a potential change to a vampire, which is 50/50 at this point given her parentage. As the story escalates, we learn more about the brotherhood, Wrath, The lessers, and the history of the vampires. 

I really enjoyed this and I will definitely continue the series.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder

stephaniemcuervo's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child death, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, and War