Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Ritual by Adam L.G. Nevill

35 reviews

izypup's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Excrement, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

penguingin's review

adventurous dark sad tense medium-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood

gawdz0rz's review against another edition

dark tense 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

3.5

includes a peek into some more recent parts of norwegian history. i won’t say more than that outside spoilers. 

kinda feels like the book splits into two different books like halfway through? 

author writes a little weird about women’s bodies. “he was smelling her cunt through a nose he knew to be smashed flat.” no he wasn’t. that’s not true. 

some other thoughts:

the tie-in of black metal and the 90s church burnings in norway to the characters’ backgrounds was great. and luke pointing out the conflicting beliefs (different tattoos, getting sacrificed to what was believed a pagan god on an inverted cross, etc.) showed the timeline of some people in that same scene moving between satanism and paganism (or what is now called “odinism”), sincerity not required. and then there’s showing the bigoted beliefs of some in the black metal scene—burzum, for example, being one of the bands fenris listed, was founded by varg vikernes, a nazi. and that wasn’t the only nazi band listed. 

finally, i’m not sure i like how the beast in the woods was kinda just brushed off as some random demon or “mother” or whatever, rather than something way more important to the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fatphobia, Misogyny, Torture, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Vomit

violetturtledove's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

This had me absolutely gripped the whole way through.  It's a great mix of Scandinavian folklore and survival horror, with a good dash of 'spooky cabin in the woods'. I only felt really creeped out in the earlier chapters, but this is not faint praise as its a feeling I rarely get at all from books. By the time the creepiness faded for me,  the tension was already high and it did not let up for the rest of the story. There's also a good amount of visceral horror so fans of gore will not be disappointed. 

The characters were well fleshed out, if not particularly likeable, and by the end you certainly sympathise with the main character despite his faults.

It ends well too, there's enough left for the reader to think on without anything being left glaringly unanswered. This is the first book I've read by this author and I will definitely be reading more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

wytnie's review

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

3.75

it was a good read, i wish we got a bit more out of the other men in the group and i feel like the author is obsessed with trying to make some of his descriptions to detailed. Like sometimes he nailed it and other times it was just too much idk. All in all though i don't regret the read and want to watch the movie again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

nnylelocin's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

charlieeee's review against another edition

dark tense 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexism, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

The first part was fabulous. Some really good examinations of people growing apart; philosophy of life (for male-socialised people anyway); it was tense and had some great metaphors and other strong writing. And then part two happened where I would have sworn I was reading a completely different book altogether! The metaphors were over the top, made no sense in the context of the scene and the characters were really stereotypical - and the less about ‘Surtr’ and the constant repetition about her breasts, body and ‘smell’ of her genitalia the better. Was so disappointed by part two. So so disappointed.

And the reveal of the big beastie ‘the god’ in the woods at the end was such a let down. Everything was leading up to this point and the pay off was so disappointing - we barely get a paragraph. There’s letting your mind fill in the blanks and then there’s this.

awaywiththefairies's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Blood

broccoli_aesthetics's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

The first part in the woods is very tense and interesting. The stalking creature is damn scary and the characters are flashed out really well. Unfortunately I feel that the second part of the book falls flat:

the black metal band is honestly too stereotyped to be interesting

and I felt like it killed the mood.
The book then gets better again near the end

with moder and the white children

Overall, i still enjoyed the book quite a bit. 4/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Racism

tallesttrees's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail