Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Sundial by Catriona Ward

3 reviews

hellokatya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

the only reason this doesn’t have a 5 star rating is because it did have some lulls in it — otherwise, this book is beautiful. would highly recommend. 
beautiful tale of mother and daughter, of sisters, and escaping the path that’s been laid out for you. so gorgeous please read it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Kidnapping

eggplantia5's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.5

A creepy and tense exploration into families and sisterhood mixed with a little spookiness and science.  A perfect read near Halloween.

Everyone is kind of the villain, (except Callie), but everyone is also trying their best. You don't really get to know Irving and find out why he's so terrible, although maybe just being a white male from a rich family is enough characterization?

The story unfolds well, even when I thought I figured out the twists in advance, there was additional color that made the payoff satisfying.

Borrowed from library, could see myself buying in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Medical trauma

bxnnny's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

another crazy ass book by catriona ward that i will be thinking about for a long time. if you've read the last house on needless street, you know how nutty her writing is, but it's such a ride. this book goes back and forth between the past and the present, slowly piecing everything together. it becomes pretty clear at a certain point the major, key details but how it all came to be might not be what you expect. i couldn't tear myself away from this one, i was just truly enthralled in this story. the ending will leave you much like how you might have felt at the end of inception. please keep in mind there are A LOT of heavy trigger warnings in this (mainly animal cruelty/abuse/death and domestic abuse but there's many more so please check them all). i likely wouldn't have read this if i didn't already know catriona ward's writing previously to prepare myself mentally or hadn't been so interested in the story to be willing to push through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Gaslighting