Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

4 reviews

sandysmith's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.5

Not my favourite Peter Swanson read but it's likeable enough. It's based on a blog, written by book shop owner Malcom (Mal) Kersha, whereby he chooses 8 book "perfect murders".  This book does contain spoilers for these 8 books if you haven't read them, but this is necessary for the storyline as it appears that there is a person copying these books and murdering. So, the ABC murders is used, but the killer uses bird themes as an example. Mal is not particularly likeable, but how the story develops is interesting. It's great,
cleverly plotted murder mystery, but unfortunately, not one of Swansons' finest.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Car accident, Murder, and Alcohol

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Wish we could do partial stars, but some we can’t, I’ll round up to four. I generally like Peter Swanson’s books. And I enjoyed this one too. The main issue I had with it is the same one I have with most cat-and-mouse stories - there’s nowhere really to go after the reveal. So as much as I enjoy most of the book, the endings often feel forced and hackneyed. I did like the format of the book starting out as a memoir. Reminded me a bit of Humbert’s confession. And like Humbert, the protagonist was really hard to like, especially as he revealed more and more of himself. The more I disliked him, the more I looked the book, which is usually the opposite for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

blackrosemoon72's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I was going to give this a three until the last 30 minutes of the book. The reveal wasn't super surprising but I liked the wrapping up of the loose ends at the end of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Car accident, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicide

cclardo's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Suicide