Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

288 reviews

azh950's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Blood, Murder, and Rape

Moderate: Racism and Sexual content

jaos's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

2.75

The read was a mix of decent and slow. It came in waves of intense parts, and then chapters and chapters of random filler. A couple of plot holes that weren’t really touched upon. An okay Read, but wasn’t blown away by the character writing or story telling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Racism, Child abuse, Rape, and Self harm

mickenzie9702'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? Yes

3.0

The middle of the book was a good thriller, but it became way too graphic towards the end of the book. It just made me feel icky overall. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Gaslighting, and Child death

ande13's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.0

I did not like this book. I felt the pace was overall too slow, and there were a lot of graphic body horror scenes

Spoiler

including describing the naked body of a 17 year old girl

that I just wasn’t anticipating and that I felt added nothing to the story. The conclusion didn’t wrap up the story as cleanly as I had hoped and it felt rushed compared to how drawn out the rest of the story was. The other big issue I had with this story was the amount of “I’m your husband, you’ll do as I say” attitude that was woven in. I get this is set in the ‘90s and is trying to stay true to the time, but it just didn’t sit well with me reading it in 2023.

Spoiler

At least Patricia asked her husband for a divorce at the end, it was literally the only saving grace.

Most importantly, does the dog die?

Spoiler

Yes, Ragtag dies, and it felt totally unnecessary. He makes it all the way to the end of the story, just to be given a tumor and killed. I felt like they could have chosen another way for Patricia to get Korey out of the mental hospital.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, and Rape

noceur's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Rape, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Racism, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Suicide

hippie_raccoon's review against another edition

dark 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? No

4.0

I really enjoyed this. It was a quick read, that felt like a horror action while reading it. The descriptions of the attacks and

Spoiler

dismemberment

had me squirming and grossed out, in a good way. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Animal cruelty

camo_mila's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Spoiler

I liked the book. I had a fun time reading and I loved the female characters. The only problem for me was the skip of time of three years, I think it broke the pace quite a bit and it was quite abrupt. I would prefer the story to continue flowing instead of making the characters freeze in time to then have a growing opportunity. 

The ending wasn't my fave too, not that it was bad or anything, but not as interesting I guess, I expected more of the ending. But I had a enjoyable time so no regrets

Also fyi having sexist and racist characters on a book doesn't mean by proxy that the book is that, even more when it's fully criticizing the characters for it, all the damn time.

Spoiler

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual violence, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Death, Rape, Gore, Violence, Pedophilia, Murder, Suicide, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Alcoholism

ahopper7's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Pedophilia and Rape

azureumbreon's review against another edition

funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Murder, Child death, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Rape, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Dementia

bookishchaos's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

It was pretty good, not what I was expecting and I'm still questioning what I just read. It had a slow start but picked up after 50%. 
READ TRIGGER WARNINGS ⚠️ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Child death and Child abuse

Minor: Blood, Gore, and Vomit