Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder

7 reviews

hanyaya's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.75

Starts slow but gets extremely violent. Kept catching myself saying "oh there's no way it's going to go there..." before it absolutely did. Not even just in 1937 Nanjing, which was, unfortunately, expected. Just because it was obvious what the medicine was doesn't mean it wasn't a horrible march towards the reveal.

I found Grey and Jason just so uninteresting that I didn't want to spend time with them, and the idea that she'd become the most popular hostess by talking about her studies of Nanjing and asking the men if their families had committed war crimes there was strange, but whatever. Grey felt a little like she wasn't a character so much as whatever she needed to be in the moment -- rash and emotional at one moment, calm and rational the next. Patient enough to wait years, impatient enough to be incapable of a conversation that gives us information. Smart enough to study this for so long and figure out the puzzle, that the twist of her ignorance no longer felt genuine but rather just convincing herself, and maybe that's the point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Cannibalism, Abortion, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Blood, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Sexual assault

aknaag's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

The story is honestly heartbreaking, considering that it is based on the real life genocide in Nangkin it’s obviously so hard to grasp. 

But let me just say, the MC is so boring and unbearable like she is so? Lame…? Like I couldn’t care less about her part of the plot, I was only keen on other aspects or other characters on the book.  She was as plain as soggy oatmeal.  Also gave me Asian fetish vibes but that’s just me.  

I want to say nothing really, disturbed or shocked me? I want to say that’s because I’m either super desensitized which isn’t shocking or that I was very prepared for the worst considering the most unspeakable did happen in real life.  But I wanna say I wasn’t expecting what happened irl to be written and fleshed out in a purely fictional story solely out of respect, so I understand that.

It’s just…. Parts of the story really bored me personally. The MC was just… girl have some personality lmao you’re so fucking BORING.

Anyway that *one* scene or the climax? The whole point of the plot when it finally played out, it was so heartbreaking and fucking tragic nonetheless, had me gasping and just all around so fucking sad that it happened , and to say most likely happened IRL??

All I gotta say is Japan had the craziest rebranding. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

girlpuck's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Animal death, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

cappitak's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

sasisaskia's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Abortion, Sexual harassment, and War

Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Cannibalism

spookykitty2334's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Very well written book. My only complaint is the lack of the main characters backstory and her family. Regardless this book will stick with me for a long time. If you like plot driven dark stories then this is for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, and Pregnancy

e_gracereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I enjoyed this book, more than I even expected to. It was horrific — which is to be expected, considering it’s a historical fiction about the Rape of Nanking — but it was incredibly well written, haunting, and mysterious. It’s going to sit with me for a while, I think, especially this: is ignorance forgivable? 

Incredibly poignant. Highly recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail