Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers

29 reviews

lemonsaurus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Police brutality, and Fire/Fire injury

sharanya's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

Good things: the eerie, gothic vibes were ✨IMMACULATE✨. Truly, it was like I had fingers walking up and down my spine the entire time I was reading this, the dark English manor setting was so gorgeously rendered. Emily Brontë would be so proud. Also, the mystery plot was for the most part very engaging, & even surprised me quite a bit at the end! The ehh things: I really wanted so much more out of the romance. I know other mystery books where the romance makes you ache and this didnt get there for me. In fact, overall the characters were often quite hard to understand for me, & I kept getting thrown out of the story bc of it. 

Overall, if you’re interested in a twisty Victorian gothic mystery I’d give this one a try!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Incest, Miscarriage, and Sexual assault

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book follows Jenny, who is a spiritualist that performs seances for the rich as a ruse to steal from them. She knows ghosts aren’t real. When she is arrested and her only chance for to avoid the gallows is to perform one last reading, she agrees. That is until she gets to the home and realizes it may actually be haunted. 

Not at any point could I predict how this mystery was going to pan out. This book was wild. I liked how it was spooky but not enough to give you nightmares.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Violence

Moderate: Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Suicide and Fire/Fire injury

prettiestwhistles's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Police brutality, Grief, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Incest, Miscarriage, Blood, Medical content, and Dementia

Several characters are described as "mad," including one encountered directly in the narrative. While her condition is never specified, she experiences auditory hallucinations and is killed while trying to murder the protagonist. The narrator attributes the violence to her illness.

laura_awkward_fox's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, and Murder

Minor: Miscarriage

mattiedancer's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Writing: 3⭐️/5 

The writing in this novel is fine. Near the end – or the further I got into the book – the more Myers seemed to find a writing flow. However, a couple chapters or so into the book, I realized that several paragraphs were formatted nearly the same length with sentences of exactly (or nearly exactly) the same length with the same rhythm. Once I noticed this, it was hard to keep reading as it gave a very boring, dry sound to every piece of action, despite the story being utterly compelling. Eventually, this kind of fell away, but it never fully left, and it really struck me as quite hard to continue reading.

Characters: 3.5⭐️/5

Alright, so the characters are interesting, but also inconsistent at various points. I felt like some of the backstory was thrown in almost too conveniently and it gave a lack of polish to the characters. However, I did find our MC and our main love interest compelling and – as the story continued – they grew nicely (if conveniently) enough to keep me engaged and happy.

Plot: 4⭐️/5 

The plot started strong. We have a crooked medium who robs her clients in order to pay her rent. We have a conveniently rich man who has need of her fake services. And we have a murder – or suicide? – that we need to solve. Compelling, right? I loved the main plot. For as predictable as some turns were, it remained fun and fresh in feeling enough to keep me thoroughly engaged. However, my main gripe is with the ending, which felt like way too much, too soon. For some reason, Myers chose to use about the final 20-30 pages to wrap up every little thread possible – including several that really should have been left alone. The overwriting of the ending was hard to deal with, especially after a fun journey.

Who Should Read This Book? 

• Fans of fantasy and mystery novels
• Fans of mystery novels looking for a fresh plot
• Fans of historical mystery novels with a side dish of romance
• Readers of the above persuasion looking for plot overwriting

Content Warnings? 

Murder, gaslighting, mental illness, stalking, police brutality (minor), child abuse, death, pregnancy, miscarriage, incest, violence, injury, injury detail, blood, grief, gore, confinement, drowning, infidelity, toxic relationship, misogyny, sexism, slavery (minor), emotional abuse, physical abuse, suicide, animal death (minor)

Post-Reading Rating:  3.5⭐️/5

Oh, if only it hadn’t tried to wrap up every tiny thread in the last bit of the novel, I could have loved it so much more.

Final Rating: 3.5⭐️/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Slavery, and Police brutality

aturb92's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Miscarriage

cassie7e's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

Didn't find the romance part compelling - it didn't build up believabIy or with any chemistry - but I loved the intrigue and twists! Fortunately the romance was a subplot and not as important. I never fully guessed what was happening but my suspicions were in the right place, which was a nice balance.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Incest, Miscarriage, Suicide, and Violence

bessadams's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Mental illness and Miscarriage

katieconrad's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death and Incest