Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

63 reviews

ameydireads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

"Some people said that broken bones grew back stronger. On the good days, I told myself that was true, that each time the world tried to break me, I became a little less breakable. On the bad days, I suspected that I would always be broken, that parts of me would never be quite right—and that those were the parts that made me good at the job. Those were the parts that made this house and the people in it home."

The Naturals are back! In this book the FBI investigates a serial killer that is copying the MO of Dean’s father. This case provides a deeper insight into Dean’s character and his difficult history with his father. Honestly, his father is a POS—the devil incarnate who thrives on manipulation and mind games. As this case concerns Dean’s father, there is no stopping the Naturals from getting involved, much to the dismay of Agent Sterling. 

Agent Sterling, an FBI profiler, is an intriguing new character in this story. At first, her strictness and stern attitude made me unsure if I would like her, but this changed as her backstory unfolded. I understood her better and she quickly grew into one of my favourite characters. 

I’m not a big fan of love triangles, so I appreciated that this came to an end after they solved the case. I hope it doesn’t return! On a side note, I also hope that they will improve the security of the house the Naturals reside in. You ‘d expect they would have learned their lesson after their previous encounter with a serial killer, but apparently not.

Overall, it’s a thrilling and fast-paced read. The psychology of the criminal mind, particularly that of Dean’s father, was both interesting and deeply disturbing. We see what drives him and what his ulterior motives are. Additionally, the nerve-wracking ending where Cassie finds herself in a life-threatening situation with again another serial killer made sure I could not put this book down.

I’m excited to read the next books, especially now that the Naturals have permission to work on active investigations!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Alcohol

melist6's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Torture, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Murder

tarlie_12_xoxo's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Kidnapping, and Murder

han_nanner6's review against another edition

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

5.0

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

tnemelce's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent and Abandonment

emmastrachan's review against another edition

challenging informative mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

meganemarshall's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

All right, this one was much better than the first one. The mystery was throughout the entire book, unlike time. It was pretty gripping. I read straight through in 4 hours, so it had me hooked. I still don't like Lia. I still don't really care for the love triangle aspect. However, overall, I think this was much more well-rounded than the first book was.

I will say, I called it! The minute we met a character, I was like, 'I bet that's the big bad', but there were enough twists and turns within the story that the mystery satisfied me. With what happened at the end, I'm excited to dive into the next one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Torture and Kidnapping

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.25

The romance angle continued to be very cringe in this one, and the plot was predictable.  It was odd that towards the end it was laid out as a kind of twist when it felt so obvious that I was questioning if maybe it was circling into red herring territory but nope.

Serves it's purpose for being a book I don't care about in between other books I do.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

p2evavaras's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Torture, and Violence

victoria_elaine's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

Just like the first book, I read this in one sitting. The plot twists were prominent here too, but not as shocking as in the first book. I love how easy to read the author’s writing style is, and the plot keeps me turning the page (more so in the first book than in this one). Also living for Cassie and Dean. I hope the third book is even better!! (Though can anything beat the first??) Was gonna give 4 stars, but added a quarter more because

I live for the whole kidnapped trope in books lol.

Side note- it’s tragic that these are the kinds of books you can never read for the first time again, because the shock factor is so addicting and incomparable to any other feeling

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Emotional abuse