Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

67 reviews

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

antimony's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

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

3.0

ok see . i really liked the past chapters and i liked the end a lot. but like. why was it set up the way it was? like a lot of present then a huge chunk of past interspersed with 2-page chapters of present then a lot of crazy stuff happening in the present plus the little excerpts from rob’s stories which serve us nothing at all. i wish the past and present chapters had been more dispersed from each other. and for the longest time i did not like callie or (present) rob. and i wish we’d had more time in the past i thought that part was quite interesting! also the unsettling desert vibes were simply not there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage

racl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-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

4.25

Heavy subject matter all around, but I really enjoyed the way the story unraveled, revealing the truth bit by bit in ways that never felt out of the blue. Every revelation feels right rather than done for shock value.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Drug abuse and Drug use

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.

01_in_emilyon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Physical abuse

sunshinestark's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

kyra_joy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

I loved most of the Rob sections, and didn’t mind the Callie sections especially towards  the end the arrowod sections however I could do without. It’s definitely one of those books that keeps you guessing until the end, and has lots of cool twists. I did however find Callie a little too annoying which I think I understand why but still made some her parts hard to get through. I also found the end a bit abrupt. Definitely one to read the warnings on. But overall an enjoyable experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Torture, and Trafficking

bookishloz's review against another edition

challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

uchihas's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage, Self harm, and Vomit

hazmatz's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child abuse and Miscarriage

Minor: Infidelity