Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister

6 reviews

booksinkandpaper2's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, and Abandonment

pidgepodge'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I liked the story and for most of the book I was very engaged with the plot. The ending was lackluster in my opinion, and although it wasn’t a bad ending, it wasn’t something that felt like the book was wrapped up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, and Abandonment

burchama's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Abandonment

zalouis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

cassie7e's review against another edition

reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.5

2.5 stars - waffled between liking and not liking it, and probably wouldn't recommend in general except to friends who are arc-focused.

A lot of this book is telling instead of showing. That can work for stories about plot or history but this book aims to be about experiences and feelings. For a book centered on scents, I didn't get clear sense of any of them. It talks about so many and with vague language. I'd been hoping for concrete, visceral, emotional scent descriptions, but the narratives just throws scent after scent at the reader and tells us it feels important. And the character's super ability to not only smell well but glean information about people's thoughts and feelings or actions through it felt unbelieveable much of the time. I wish it had been explained as an intuition paired with a strong nose instead of actually reading people through their smell.

Stemming from this same issue with telling, the prose overrelies on ominous-reflection in place of actual foreshadowing. I actually did enjoy the arc of the story, which is the main reason I kept reading, and just balances out the issues I have with the style to be an "okay" book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Abandonment

mdavis26's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment