Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

8 reviews

sophiemlpink's review against another edition

This has a fantastic premise with terrible execution. The pieces are there, the author just forgot to assemble them in any semblance of order. The murders are torture porn and the obvious metaphor for patriarchal society corroding intelligent women’s potential for changing the world just isn’t there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Torture, Violence, Murder, Gore, Sexism, and Misogyny

Moderate: Homophobia and Racism

maggiejean's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide, Stalking, Drug use, Death, and Blood

Minor: War, Suicide, and Animal death

queersubtext's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Stalking, Body horror, Animal death, Drug use, Confinement, Blood, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Gore, Misogyny, and Medical trauma

jamiejanae_6'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Abortion, Alcohol, Grief, Animal cruelty, Classism, Cursing, Gore, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Stalking, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, and Violence

unicorndave's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

The killing scenes are particularly brutal, as they are told from the victims' perspectives. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, Transphobia, and Violence

rachal_e's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Torture, and Stalking

Minor: Sexual content

kelseak96's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Really good! I struggle finding thrillers that aren’t cliche, where I’m actually invested in the characters, and that keep me guessing, and this book did a great job of that! Like others have said, there’s a lot about the universe, the House, the characters’ backstories that isn’t explained, but I think it’s done in a way which makes it feel like we’ve just met these characters or stumbled upon the House like any other stranger. Would absolutely recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, and Transphobia

the dog dies

sarah984's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I thought this was an intriguing premise for a book, a time-travelling killer and a magical house, but the final product disappointed me. We spend WAY too much time in the killer’s head and he's extremely boring if you're not into reading the same rant about how he hates women 400 times. The romance with Kirby and her supervisor is stupid and never really amounts to anything

(and in the end she STILL needs a man to save her!)

and the explanation for the magic behind the house’s time travel abilities is the absolute most boring one you could pick. The "blaccent" on a few of the Chicago characters is borderline racist parody. The other shining girls are all really interesting but when you finally get invested in them they die horribly so it feels a bit pointless. For some reason I thought this was going to be about Kirby trying to save the others, but it isn't.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Gore, Medical content, Misogyny, and Torture

Moderate: Drug abuse, Racism, Sexual content, and Gun violence

Minor: Ableism, Antisemitism, Deadnaming, Dementia, Excrement, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Self harm, Transphobia, and Vomit