Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl

17 reviews

lipstickitotheman's review

adventurous funny 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

3.5

It was fun! I liked it! I wasn't riveted. Nice emotional twist at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual content, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

annieisawesome's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

The basic plot line was interesting. It felt badly executed. The writing felt very bad fan fiction-y. Also a lot of needless details. Definitely wouldn’t read again. I only finished it because it was short. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

sssssoup's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective fast-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? Yes

0.25

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for months, and more than anything, I found it incredibly disappointing. When I first heard about it, the combination of ideas sounded like it would be really interesting and fun to read, but I found everything about it lacking.

The plot itself was fine, and I was okay with the resolution in the end, but there were a lot of glaring issues related to the vampire lore that took away from my enjoyment of the story.

Why did nobody in the town seem to care about all the murders? The vampires killed at least fifteen or twenty people during the story, which spanned less than a month. I know it’s fiction, so they can take some liberties when it comes to logic, but this was so glaring that I wasn’t willing to overlook it. Also, I know Holly was nowhere near as bad as Elton, but she still had a significant age gap with Parker, and I found it odd that that was never addressed.

The characters were also not very interesting. Despite all their trauma and the author’s attempts to make them sympathetic, I didn’t really feel bad for any of them. They seemed boring and shallow, and the fact that they all only got one distinct personality trait made them run together in my mind. 

Overall, I like the ideas present in the story, but the execution was lackluster and forgettable at best.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Misogyny, Sexism, Dementia, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

btorsi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.0

if i had a nickel for every book i read in 2022 so far that mentioned ripping out someone's eyes and eating them, i'd have two nickels. which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice.

a fun read. super engaging. interesting world building. a check off my tbr. not the kind of book i'm going to be thinking about nonstop after i finished it, but not bad. just. good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Grief

Minor: Confinement

cheybrary's review against another edition

adventurous funny 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Grief, and Gaslighting

bradleygiselle's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted sad tense medium-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

I liked the first half of this book enough that I was going to give it 5 stars, but the second half kind of chipped points away for me. As always, I wanna start with the good aspects. The first of these being that this was campy and fun most of the time. I highlighted a ton of parts that made me laugh, there was so much of it that was darkly funny. Another thing I really liked were the two vampire "sidekicks" (but let's face it, they were kind of running shit) Ida and Rose. I thought they were far more interesting than our main character, whose name I kept forgetting 💀

The things that bugged me are as follows: the romance was weak. I felt like it was a little forced and I have an idea for a different route it could've taken that would make it better. I also think the book would've been better from Rose or Ida's point of view, or switching points of view, but I understand why it wasn't. There was also sexual content that made me uncomfortable. It didn't feel like it belonged in what I'm pretty sure is a YA novel, but maybe that's just me. Also, I found the way they disposed of their kills to be a little too convenient and unbelievable, even for a vampire story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying