Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Pawn and The Puppet by Brandi Elise Szeker

10 reviews

moendchen's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.5

Please read the trigger warnings for this one!! Theres a heavy main theme that overshadows this whole book and it’s definitely not for everyone. Please be cautious. 

But omg I had such a good time! My only critique is, that sky truly never saves herself. Never. Even when she does, she uses the advice/the words that were given to her to protect/save herself.  Plus worldbuilding could be better tbh. Still would read it again! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

mlouise2974's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

isabelleroyall'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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

violentai's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This was a hard book to swallow. Very slow burn for me. Very hard  debilitating abuse occurs within these pages. Some of which seemed over the top and unnecessary. Like one would use it to hit a word threshold instead of for plot or character development. 
This is definitely 100% not a book for a LOT of people. It is not for the feint at heart and it is not for those who find themselves upset with darker themes. Because the abuse makes it pretty damn dark. I went into this knowing how bad it would it could be and some of it as said previously seemed unnecessary or as if it was not researched properly. I am going to now have a rant.

A person would die if they were locked in a closet for weeks at a time without food. They will die if they consume drywall to survive. A person would die if they’re locked for weeks in a basement if not going insane themselves from the pitch blackness. A person would go insane from numerous years of torture as a child. He started being tortured at 6. He would not come away from that with ONLY split personalities. If a person gets their clothes torn, cut up or bloodied from a battle or a knife cutting them or a person ripping their clothes for nefarious reasons they should not suddenly seem okay in the next scene! Their clothes dried with blood on them. Are you seriously telling me she didn’t feel it crusting on her or between her cleavage when he grazed his finger there???

End rant.

The romance between the characters and the mystery were interesting if not fun. I enjoyed the romance just not the seemingly unnecessary volume of abuse. 

Thank you for reading. I hope this helps others see if this book is right for them or not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Minor: Eating disorder, Incest, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

vepowell's review

0.25

Spoilers and a very negative review ahead: 

So... wow. The trigger warnings were nowhere near complete. The only LGBTQ+ rep was incredibly harmful. The writing was simply poor. Repeating words from sentence to sentence, world building issues, pacing issues. I honestly only read it because of the controversy- don't make the same mistake I did. Not worth the 6 hours it took to power through it. 

The story arc wasn't so much an arc as a squiggly line that lost itself somewhere in the middle, and it felt like things that could have been a whole chapter were a page, like half the plot should have been held off to a second book. Also, for a "dark romance"... there's basically no romance, just some flirting mixed with poor representation of DID (by the authors admission). The final lines as some form of cliffhanger just felt like a desperate way to get the reader to read the next book. 

World building wasn't really building, and the only component of the world built out was society's hatred of women and pushing them to an anorexic ideal that led to pain and death. The rest of the world? That apparently theres several continents, psychic powers that aren't psychic but are somehow just powers of observation, giant wolves and other magical type beasts... none of that was built out in any satisfactory way. It was just "look this society hates women and treats them horribly, also theres secret government organizations and stuff but let's just focus on this one asylum and the hatred of women". 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

lilithreads's review

dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Suicide attempt

soniajoy98's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

0.5

horrifying graphic trauma porn do NOT read for your own mental health please

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Incest, Self harm, Transphobia, Dementia, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Infidelity

ladyashhbooks's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

stablebiscuit's review

dark emotional tense slow-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

2.25

Lots of typos throughout this book. The editor didn’t do a very good job, unfortunately, which was distracting.

The book itself was good, despite the tropes being overdone. Also- definite transphobia on the author’s part. A trans character rapes her son… can we stop the “crossdressing man that is a rapist” trope for trans women? It’s disgusting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

lotte5322's review

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Death of parent, and Murder