Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Dreadful: A Dark Retelling by Greer Rivers

3 reviews

paulinebellini's review against another edition

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

5.0

I didn't want this series to end! Out of all three, this was definitely the darkest in terms of plot and kink!

Spoilering as usual however I do want to warn that there will be some discussion of the gore and smut, proceed with caution!

This is a Sweeney Todd retelling however it much more loosely follows the inspiring story, unlike Phantom and Rouge. And because of the content of the Sweeney Todd musical, I expected some gore, more than the other two as well.

The gore in this book bordered on too intense for me. It was not so bad to claim a star, but there was a scene, Percy's death, that had me wondering if I could stomach the rest of this book. That was definitely the worst of the murders though, thankfully.

Tallie and Sev seemed like some of the most fleshed out and original characters of this whole series. I think showing them as children helped build them as adults later on. It wasn't clear at first that Tallie knew that Sev was the boy, and once it's revealed all along, their first encounter doesn't really make sense because it feels like Tallie has never seen him before.

I loved their banter, I loved the tension between them. The scene where he had her tied up was incredibly hot, even if him putting the knife handle in her made me cringe. I do with they could just communicate with each other because like damn. Talking would have saved so much time and strife.

Sev fails every time he tries to like... plan things. He knows his uncle's game at the first dinner but he still falls into the trap, and then somehow the uncle figures everything out to ruin their plans at the second dinner too. But Tallie is also lucky she never got caught(I mean, Sev caught her, but still), so I guess neither one of them should be in charge of making plans.

Once the main spice happened, the plot moved really quickly. Like the smut happened, revelations happened, and then immediately, he gets the Judge and they kill him and finish up their revenge? It was so fast. Also, the uncle tried to kill Tallie and I thought it was weird how things weren't clear enough in the footage to see any details on the car the first time but when they looked again, they could see the man's rings.

Tony's death actually had me in tears, and again at the end when they let him go. I loved that everyone got closure, the story felt very complete.

Sev and Tallie had some of the best banter of the entire series. Tallie very much lives up to her Vipera nickname and Sev matches her really well. I loved their dynamic.

I love the distinct settings for these works, I love the way this story was connected to Rouge, much more than Rouge connected to Phantom, and I also love how the author weaves another language into the stories. Phantom had French(obviously), Rouge had Irish, and Dreadful has Italian. The MMCs give their ladies nicknames in their native tongues. I'm here for it!

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hanschub's review

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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marypetrushko's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0


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