Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Darkfever

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Darkfever, by Karen Marie Moning

10 reviews

meganpbennett's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

I read the first four books in the Fever series years ago, and I decided to reread Darkfever to see how it held up to what I remember. I remember really liking it, but I found it was okay this time. Mac isn't a particularly great narrator, and story is far darker than I remember.

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chocola's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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isabella_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-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? Yes

2.0

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bookswithangeli's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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katiereadsdaily's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

3.75

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mrtnk's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? No

4.5

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vendottie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted fast-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

3.0

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cealotte's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

2.0

I was pretty hopefully for this book. I love fae stories in modern settings, and I was excited for the pairing of that with a murder mystery. However, this book was such a letdown. The narration of the story (first-person) actively spoiled parts of the plot, letting you know before something happened that the main character (and sometimes others) survived and later had thoughts about how the specific moment went down. The main character also spent a lot of time on asides or mini rants about unrelated topics--in a way that felt more like a venting of the author's opinions than a productive. (For example: rants about how the millennial generation is entitled in the middle of nowhere.)

I do acknowledge that this book was written in the early 2000s, however I still was disappointed by some of the problematic parts of the story. There's a lot of misogyny and internalized misogyny. Not just from a specific characters, which would be fine. But from every angle. There's also a moment when a character is described as "Saudi" and that is directly associated with him being "fierce, dark and ruthless."

Spoiler

I also expected that there would be more romance in this book, as it is a romance. The main relationship is set up to be almost an enemies to lovers. The two characters butt heads constantly and seem to viscerally dislike each other. However, this plays out in the guy (Barrons) being quite abusive towards Mac. During an initial meeting, he slams her into the wall and pins her there till she can't breathe, causing her to be in a lot of pain later. It's not sexy or kinky: it's violent. He then continues to insult her, bully her, and control her actions throughout the rest of the book.

The romance also doesn't even develop during this story. (I'm assuming it kicks in in the subsequent novels in the series.) The two characters simply antagonize each other until the very end, when all of a sudden they show each other some basic decency--and there's a possible kiss.

There are two scenes with sexual content. However, they're both non-consensual moments when a fae being of dubious motivation whips the main character into a frenzy in an uncomfortably public place. It just reads incredibly awkwardly. If you're reading this book looking for spicy content, it technically exists but I would look elsewhere.

I bumped my rating to 2 stars purely because part of me is curious to read the next book.

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pos1t1vel1fe's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious slow-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

This book has issues with perspective. Which get in the way of the story also the author is weirdly obsessed with telling us the main characters nail polish or gloss colour.

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coldbrewbookreviews's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This was just terrible. My first issue from pretty much page one is Mac and her narration. I understand that she is supposed to be a sheltered southern girl, but she never acts older than 14. She replaces curse words with silly words like "petunia" which makes zero sense. She refers to herself as a "hottie" at one point which has never been a popular term. Even when she is talking about other adults, she refers to them as "the grownups" as if she is not a grownup at age 22. She is this obnoxious throughout the entire book. If the author removed all the vain and vapid paragraphs where she goes into mundane detail about her clothes or appearance this book would be 100 pages.

I was asking for a smutty romantic fantasy, and I got this recommendation. There was no romance, and you cannot convince me otherwise. There were sexual scenes, but TW: they were not consensual no matter how you spin it. If someone would have told me that this was the fantasy version of 50 Shades of Gray I would have stayed far, far away. Nothing about rape and non-consensual sex acts are enjoyable to read.

Spoiler

And spoiler alert: we don't even find out who the killer is. That's the one and only reason I kept reading. There was enough about this world to continue on with the series even if we found who the killer was in book 1. I will not be continuing on though.

I'm going to be honest. This did not feel like Dublin. The setting did not feel authentic or purposeful. She made the Irish sound dumb at every corner. And for anyone wondering Highlanders are Scottish, not Irish.

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