Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup

20 reviews

jettaparadis's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Mental illness, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

essie__reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book kept me hooked from the beginning. I tend not to enjoy thrillers because I often find them too predictable, but that was not the case with this book. I genuinely had no idea who the killer was or what their motive was, until it was revealed in the book. This book is over 500 pages but the chapters are short and fly by. There were several different characters introduced in the beginning which made the beginning a bit slow but they are easy to differentiate between and the rest of the book flowed very seamlessly. If you enjoy detective/police thrillers, I would highly recommend this one. I felt like the ending was left open enough for the possibility of a sequel, while still wrapping up the main plot very well. I am looking forward to watching the Netflix series adaptation!!

Please be advised to look up content warnings!!!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Torture, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, and Stalking

fbzreadswhatever's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

dotoridoritou's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

in_love_with_bookish's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

1.0

 There are so many things I hated about this book, I don’t know where to start.

Grief is love made homeless

To keep it short, The Chestnut Man is a serial killer story with so many familiar points and beats. It is disturbing, It follows a frustrating but somehow predictable path and it fails at portraying the different issues with sensitivity and nuances.

I think the tone works perfectly well and I think the author knows how to create a sinister atmosphere full of dread and danger. The book was just too frustrating and too long to do the mystery elements justice. And let’s not even talk about the problems with the characters and how those disturbing heartbreaking issues were handled.

The story starts with a very unsettling and gruesome scene that sets the tone for the rest of the book. We have a serial killer on the loose called the chestnut man and a pair of detectives with a lot of differences that need to be put aside if they want a chance at capturing the madman.

I think what drove me nuts was how every single detective except the main guy was either an idiot or just a selfish asshole. It was so frustrating how everyone was running around in circles missing every clue they have and really hindering the process of the investigation causing more lives to be lost. The main character was the only one capable of actually seeing the clues of what they were. The others were a bunch of incompetent assholes who has nothing to do but halt any progress made. This conflict between the main character and the others felt really frustrating and repetitive and it just tainted the story for me. I do not enjoy following stupid characters, especially in mysteries.

Hess had long thought of death with indifference. Not because he hated life, but because existence was painful.

I also find the story to be really traumatic and horrifying. It was so dark for me at times, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. The story deals with Child abuse and it does not shy away from very troubling, heartbreaking gruesome details. The book was so dark it felt at times cruel to me and I just feel like child abuse was used as a means to an end in this book. I think the book could’ve been more sensitive about this particular issue and how it was presented to us. I felt it was done more as a shocking element than as an important issue that needs more depth and compassion.

I just felt so cold reading this book, the writing was too dry, the way a lot of things were written left me feeling really upset and every time I think the characters were getting their shit together, they disappoint me again. I also knew where the story was going and how the author was going to handle some of the themes of the book and I’m extremely disappointed. (view spoiler) All in all, this was really a profoundly horrible experience for me. I may never read a book by this author again, This one was enough to scar me for life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

abbeyhuffine94's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder

ktdakotareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Stalking

kaidoz's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The main plot of the book surrounds a serial killer, and I find the idea of it very interesting. The murders and the way the plot thickens isn’t too slow. The main characters are pretty cliche. The main woman is a headstrong/independent type and the main man is a carbon copy of the rugged detective with a mysterious past who was kicked off the force. The story itself made it readable but because of the characters’ cliche-ness I wasn’t too much of a fan of the <slight romance toward the end>. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexism, Medical content, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

This book contains mentions of graphic child abuse, physical and sexual. Many people are murdered and it is mentioned in detail due to the main characters being detectives.

corinnab's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

5 stars! What a fantastic intricately woven thriller!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is by the same author who wrote the novel that was turned into the amazing TV series, "The Killing", which was picked up by Netflix mid-way through. This book was graphic, dark, and gritty (similar to Pretty Girls but a very different storyline). It is long but it is worth it. I read it slow and the pages took awhile to get through (not sure if it was that they were big pages or something to do with the translation). This is not your typical thriller, but moreso a cinematic slow build. There are so many key players and you never really know who is responsible for what until the end. Although there are so many characters, I did not find myself confused. The characters are flawed, but real, and there are so many sick people in this story, but they all have a story. I loved this so much!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Addiction, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Stalking

hazelgirl21's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse