Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

13 reviews

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this! Honestly it wasn’t as creepy as I thought it was going to be. It has an interesting premise that I wanted to find out what happened. I liked seeing how everything came together in the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Grief, Kidnapping, and Murder

sarahholliday's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Holy. Cow. 

I absolutely adored this reading experience. The Winter People is a beautiful, perfect balance of suspense and horror, exploring grief and oppression and the consequences of holding on too tight to the things we love.

If you're looking for a lightly suspenseful "what's going on here" kind of story...this is not that. This is full-on creepy and terrifying. At its heart, though, is this question of what unnatural evil can arise when we try too hard to subvert death and the grieving process. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body horror, Child death, and Confinement

Moderate: Animal death

youweremycrown's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5 so spooky so fun.. i got a little confused in the beginning bc i felt some of the characters in the past weren’t introduced well so i didn’t know how to place them within the story and in relation to the characters so that let to a lot of flipping back and forth when i finally pieced it together later on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Miscarriage

mflynn8908's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Perfect story to read during winter. Reading it at night added to the creepy atmosphere and kept me on edge. Several times this story had me turning on the light and closing my closet door. Perfect story telling! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Murder, Death, Child death, and Terminal illness

Minor: Cancer, Gore, Car accident, Animal cruelty, Violence, and Gun violence

julienicole1106's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Child death, Grief, Gun violence, Infertility, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicide, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

michaelat21's review

dark emotional 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? No

3.0

The ending of this book sucked. I loved the book and was on the edge of my seat and then it just kinda ended in the most meh way and fell flat. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Child death

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, and Confinement

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

jjjreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Grief, Gore, Racism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Misogyny, Confinement, Stalking, Violence, Car accident, Classism, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Alcoholism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

2.5

A harrowing tale with many twists and turns, which keeps you interested and guessing. I was glued to the story up until the last third. I wasn't thrilled with the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Blood, Death of parent, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Car accident, Animal death, and Cancer

albon's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Minor: Car accident

katsbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

3.0

“If snow melts down to water, does it still remember being snow?”

“Madness is always a wonderful excuse, don’t you think? For doing terrible things to other people.”

“How can you dream if you don’t have a soul?”

This was a fun, spooky read. I've had this book on my shelf for literal years but definitely never realized it was a horror. I'm so glad I finally read it, though. I would not call myself a horror reader and this feels like a solid book for those just kind of getting into the horror genre. It was creepy and suspenseful without being overly gross or too "out there." I liked the multiple perspectives. It was easy to tell the difference between each POV and I was equally interested in all of the different characters we were following. I enjoyed the creepy feeling that the book gave me. I read a big chunk of this novel late in the evening and freaked myself out when I had to turn out the lights for bed time. I always find that to be a good sign in terms of general atmosphere. 

I'll try to not be too spoilery with the things I didn't like it but please read ahead with your own risk, especially if you're thinking of reading this book in the near future. My major gripe was that the only BIPOC character ended up being essentially a villain. She was very much the mystical Indian that only serves to further the character development of a white character. My other major question had to do with the teenaged character and how she came to live with her adoptive parents. The whole situation seemed like a major plot hole and didn't make sense to me. Personally, if I had been her aunt in the situation, I would not have let her adoptive parents take her given the traumatic events that led to her adoption. 

Overall, this was a solid mystery horror. It was fun and gave me creepy vibes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, Death, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt