Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Carnage by Shantel Tessier

11 reviews

bookedupchick's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Abortion, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

xlaurareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

this book was literally sooo good! i loved the dynamics between ash and the spade brothers, especially with saint, but i also really loved loved loved haidyn! would've loved to see more of him haha. you could really feel how much saint and ash love each other and while i thought ash to be a little too compliant lots of times in throughout the book, i also think she's a pretty strong and determined fmc. saint kinda felt like a badass with a secret golden retriever heart for ash and whilst i hated his behaviour towards her when he finally found her and took her back to carnage, i think his inner conflict on why he wouldn't let himself feel his love for her and make it visible to her was acted out amazingly! the plot going on towards the end of the book was great and full of unexpected twists and turns which made me gasp and cry out loud and guess everything - i couldn't put the book down, read until 2 am to finish it and went to work having slept for only 4 hours and that was totally worth it! the ending was great too and i was the happiest girly ever when i found out (although i guessed it already, but the author confirmed it) that

my man haidyn did, in fact, not die because of the motherfuckers who attacked him but is still very much alive

! nonetheless, the book was pretty dark, some stuff was really hard to swallow for me and i didn't like the dudes' behaviour towards ash when she came back to carnage...like yeah i get it hard times this that but duh they really could've handled the situation better cause they all knew she loves saint, he loves her and kash & haidyn love her as well sooo. but otherwise i enjoyed reading it quite a lot and had it finished within a day.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

ahbee_p_'s review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

2.5 stars purely for entertainment value.
The FMC needs serious therapy. 
The second half of this book was messy, and the flashbacks were repetitive. 
MMC isn't "morally grey," he's abusive.
I've read other books from the L.O.R.D.S series, so I went into this with a fairly open mind.. overall, I was disappointed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

thewenzl's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Too dark, even for me, and a bit repetitive with all the sexual punishment

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Confinement, Miscarriage, and Rape

misswirum's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.25

This book deserves 3 stars, but I'm giving it 4 and it's all because of how much I love Saint&Ashtyn😍

I have a love/hate relationship with this series.

I'm not a fan of the author's writing style. Her L.O.R.D.S-books are hard to read, but not because the writing is "difficult". It's just badly written. I have to read dozens of sentences multiple times and even then they don't always make sense. Her descriptions of people and the world surrounding them is also.. off. She's not giving us anything to work with and some things changes every time. I still don't understand how Carnage looks like. (In my head) it changes from being a bunker to a skyscraper to a small town. Which is it??

I'm not the only one complaining about the author's writing style because after every book there's a dozen post on the author's SoMe asking what the plot was and what they're missing 😂 

We're also been told through the last 3 books that "The Lords" are the most powerful people in the world (lol). But suddenly the Kings in Las Vegas can match their powers? Okay...

The author is also not a girl's girl. No FMC have a single thought behind their eyes. They HAVE been going to the university for four years, but I guess nothing really stuck? 
I totally understand the vibe Carnage's suppose to give, but I don't understand why the women can't be powerful in the end?
The SA's of the women in this series is also off the charts!! Like, can we dial it down? The scenes screams "written for shock value". 
In the next books I NEED the characters to question the Lords! WHY do they follow the rules? WHO'S giving the instructions??

Why am I giving it four stars when I have so much to rant about? Because the romance was cute and seemed real.
Ashtyn is my favourite of all the FMC in this series. There is just something about her 🥺 Saint's my favourite after Ryat.

The 🌶 is unreal in this and definitely one of my faves😏

4⭐️
2,75/5📝
4/5🌶

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kajakuba's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

There is a lot of smut. after 50% i skipped a lot of smut. the plot development is in the first half interesting, after that it gets a little messy and the characters act dumb. i recommend to thoroughly read TW. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

chauntel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, and Suicide attempt

whichdirection's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-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

1.0

This book absolutely needed another editing run, there are multiple grammatical errors/errors in sentence structure that just made me do a double take. Additionally there are several spots where the characters say/think something, then repeat themselves a few paragraphs later.

This book is marketed & listed as stand-alone but I would argue you absolutely need to have read Sin & Ty’s books for a good chunk of this one to make sense. Otherwise the immediate introduction of all these characters & the things they know about Luke and Whitney would make No Sense.

There were a lot of plot holes, and inconsistent characterization.

(Saint is meant to be protective & even cuts off a guard’s hand for touching Ash, but does nothing at all to find/punish the man who SA’d her until he shows back up?)

And at the end of the book, nothing had really changed for any of them. No one developed as a person and their situations never changed.
Additionally Ash & Saint’s relationship (like their Romance and their Love) is developed mainly in flashbacks which I found incredibly unfulfilling. They have plenty of sex but he gives her Zero aftercare and they never really talk/bond.

Ash seemed to have a deeper emotional connection with Haidyn in my opinion.

Overall I was just really confused and disappointed for the majority of this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Trafficking and Toxic friendship

kaadee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I’m begging and pleading on my knees for one of these girls to run as far away as they can. I was ROOTING for Ash, but that dumb dumb had to get caught. I just want ONE FUCKIN GIRL TO LIVE HER LIFE SAFE AND HAPPY FAR AWAY FROM THESE LORDS.

Also, the plot is so all over the place, last 100 pages never make sense but I stay for the smut.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

laylareadsthings's review against another edition

dark sad 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

Oh boy was this a roller coaster, as many others have said! 

Overall this series is basically a perfect five stars for me. It’s top tier dark romance and my favorite to recommend when someone is ready to dive into DARK dark romance (please take TW and content warnings very seriously, they are lengthy and there for a reason). The smut is iconic, I don’t think anyone comes close to Shantel in this genre. So it pains me to say that this wasn’t my favorite of the series. And LOOK like I said I LOVE this series, so by ’least favorite’ I mean no insult, there were just some issues for me and each new addition is competing with perfection. Spoilers will be hidden, open at your own risk. 

One of the reasons I’ve enjoyed this world is the attention to detail with the plot. The long conning and planning, the way characters maneuver around an incredibly strict set of rules. In Carnage, some of the character motivations and decisions felt more juvenile to me than previous books. More chaos than control. This may be because you’re juggling more characters here so the story doesn’t feel as tightly woven. There is more reiteration in this book than previous ones of the FMCs consent and interests, which some may find repetitive but I think is extremely important with this story. Ashtyn and Saint will make you work for their love, and I’m going to be thinking about them for a long time. Saint is SO GOOD, might be right behind Ryat for me as #1. And Ashtyn is really unlike any FMC I’ve read before which I mean as the highest compliment, especially in this genre where FMCs can feel repetitive to me. 

There is lack of, or mis, communication in every Lords book but in Carnage there was more than once where I couldn’t buy the fallout from an event because of it. One of these events is Ashtyn leaving. She is helped by an additional MC who knows why she leaves. This is also THE pivotal plot point for this entire book’s events. And while I completely bought her emotional journey, as the author does an incredible job writing her trauma and reasoning through her decisions, I couldn’t buy her determinedness to stay silent once she’s returned. As the reader, I just felt like a single conversation would have solved the entire issue.  The commitment from Saint to her was crystal clear from page one. While this is explained with Ashtyn feeling hopeless (and again, the author does a wonderful job here!), there were many times her actions and inner monologue show the exact opposite. Her character started to confuse me, which left me frustrated during the 60-85% mark of this book until the resolution picks up.

There’s incredible interconnectivity from the other books in the series, people pop up for a reason and it doesn’t feel frivolous. This book is written as a standalone, however I recommend you read the prior books to get the full impact. If you go in blind, the ending may feel confusing to you - but I actually think it would be a wild ride to go back and piece everything together knowing how this book wraps up. 

I am  so freaking thrilled to continue in this world and I’m dying for the next two brothers’ books (and hopefully many more)!! Once I’ve read a few palette cleansers, I’m excited to go back and do a reread. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, and Abandonment