Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

26 reviews

bibliomania_express's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Stalking, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Gore, and Body horror

akizato'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

4.5

Slow to start but once I got into it I really enjoyed it. The characters were all really interesting, and I liked the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Alcoholism

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Gore

satsumaorange's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This book slowly got less interesting over time - possibly because it's so long, but possibly because I took a very long time to read it. Maybe I'm just a little dumb, but I felt like the ending came out of nowhere and was very abrupt. I was really invested in Arent and Sammy's dynamic from the very first page - which kept me invested throughout most of the book, hoping to see more of them interacting together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Rape

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Murder

Minor: Physical abuse, Animal death, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Excrement, and Vomit

kaylamoran's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.75

Stuart Turton is an auto-buy author for me now.  I loved this almost as much as I loved Evelyn Hardcastle.  Arent and Sara were both very interesting main characters and I loved following them while they investigated the whole thing.  By the end of the story I still had absolutely no idea if the devil was real and who was pulling it off.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Blood, and Death

Minor: Confinement

selenatothemax's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Classism, Vomit, Torture, Domestic abuse, Violence, Sexism, Confinement, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Colonisation, and Sexual violence

Minor: Vomit, War, and Excrement

genny's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-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? No

3.0

I finished this quite a while ago so I can't say much other than it was...okay. I found it slow and a bit of a chore to get through, even though I liked Arent and Sara. For some reason it didn't really feel like a mystery? The reveal was a bit confusing, I just remember that I ended up hating

Spoiler

Sammy 🙄 Him trying to joke around after revealing everything pissed me off

. Haha. I currently have Evelyn Hardcastle on loan from the library so hopefully I'll like that better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, Murder, Animal death, and Sexism

Moderate: Confinement

lucybmn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

Sigh. I was so disappointed with the ending of Turton's first novel, but his wild ideas and fast-paced writing made me want to give him another try.

Spoiler

But he seems to want to write the same thing again and again. Too many characters to keep track of and a thousand useless hints dropped, all leading to an unceremonious Big Reveal that had nothing to do with any of the mystery preceding it. Again, I say: SIGH.

I liked some of these characters a bit more and the mystery made *slightly* more sense, so it gets a slightly higher rating than Evelyn Hardcastle.

And you know, I still would read his next book. I generally like his writing style and I'd like to see if he can deliver me a mystery that actually pays off.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Sexism

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Sexual violence and Torture

diana_raquel'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

4.0

"Cleverness is a type of strength, and they won't accept a woman who's stronger than they are. Their pride won't allow it, and their pride is the thing they hold dearest."

 Mystery thrillers are not my cup of tea. My reading tastes tend to be directed toward classics, fantasy, and contemporary. However, I loved the previous book of Turton.

After The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, I had an idea of what I would find in this book: a murder mystery full of details that wouldn't make sense until the final chapter, with an influence of speculative fiction.  Well, I didn't get my speculative fiction influence. And that's okay. What I got was so much better. What I got was a murder mystery (somewhat) historical full of details that only made sense in the final chapters. 

This was a really good book, with a solid structure. The characters were well developed and you never really know what they're thinking and what they might do next, which only made the narrative more compelling. And, as usual, my theories were all wrong, but then only made the narrative more interesting. 

I think that the only thing that I wasn't a fan of was the pacing in the early chapters. They seem to be dragging and dragging. I understand the need to set the scene and the characters in a murder mystery but I think that this part could be done in fewer stages/pages.

Overall, I liked it and recommend it to murder mysteries lovers!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Violence, Animal death, Death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Racism, Religious bigotry, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Rape, Slavery, and Infidelity

katelarson's review against another edition

slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Torture, and Sexism

Minor: Sexual violence and Sexual harassment

kaylaclark200's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexism, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Rape