Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Near the Bone by Christina Henry

25 reviews

batcaves's review against another edition

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

3.5


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jet_nebula's review against another edition

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

4.75


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joy_ong's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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? No

5.0


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readwithloz's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.75


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chemicalpink's review against another edition

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

3.75


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antimony's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? No

2.75

most of the stars go to this being readable, because despite the fact that it wasn't all that good, i flew through it in under 3 hours. this is not a book that slogs along! it's an easy read, maybe entertaining depending on who you are. the writing style didn't agree with me (there was a lack of commas) but that is thoroughly subjective.

the problems lay elsewhere.

like mattie's amnesia, which i don't know. it felt so convenient and she remembered things so conveniently as well. does that make sense? i wish there were fewer flashbacks. and william had no motive and all the characters were one dimensional. like i wish there was some explanation for why william wanted to
kidnap mattie and kill her mom
? and also the reveal that he was
dealing heroin to make money????????
made so sense and didn't fit thematically. and the monster was so nebulous that it didn't ever feel scary because it just felt fake. like i think some authors can get away with never really describing their monsters because that works for cosmic horror. it does not work here. it's like a bear but like a billion times bigger? and is there one or is there two? and it has paws and its eyes glow. that's it.

and dear god the ending is SO unsatisfying. like COME ON. there's no resolution. i'm not saying we have to see every day of mattie adjusting to normal life again but i mean at least some more resolution than that. i like little epilogue chapters where it's like a month later and the main character explains how everything turned out after they killed the monster and passed out in the hospital or whatever. it's like a cliffhanger without a book 2 to follow up and explain all the rest :/

but then again i read this in two hours which was cause for a 5 star rating when i was 13 so do i even have a right to complain?

EDIT and HOW did i forget to mention.
that every time mattie asks about heather and what happened to her cp or jen or griffin are like ???? who's that????? and it's definitely implied that something was up with heather, like was she ever even real? and then that's NEVER resolved.

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typedtruths's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • 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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aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes

4.0

READ CONTENT WARNINGS
This book! It was highly recommended by a YouTuber I watch and you know what? It was really good. It was scary, especially so since I live in a wooded area and I read it at night. I'm glad I didn't read this in winter because then for sure I'd be even more scared. I do have some questions involving Mattie and the creature but the answers, or lack of them really, do not seriously detract from the book as a whole. Super fast paced and kept me interested the whole time.
I wish Griffin and Jen could've made it out of the mountains with CP and Samantha. Griffin was clearly a good dude and had good friends. Wish we could've found out about how they explained their deaths and how Samantha and CP carried on and healed afterwards. Def would've liked to see a Sam-Heather reunion after all those years
I need to read something light/feel good now since this was a pretty heavy book.

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soaphest's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

3.75

started very strong, well-paced, but the story lost its steam a bit the further it went on. characters weren’t really given much depth
so even when jen and griffin died i didn’t feel a particular way about it because we really didn’t get to know them that well.
there was some lost potential with the whole creature aspect of this book and the conclusion wasn’t as satisfying as i had hoped for it to be. still, henry has a way of writing which makes you finish her books in just hours. ultimately i love reading her works & this book was no different. overall it was a very compelling read but i just wasn’t particularly wowed by it in the end.
also i was a bit confused how the whole plot point of heather was just dropped out of nowhere? it was made into this huge thing & ultimately nobody knew anything about her and it was never explained why that was, which also made the ending feel a bit rushed and abrupt

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cmdiaz004's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.75

This played out like a movie! Heart-pumping, action-packed, scary, thrilling, and even quite humorous in some places! I thoroughly enjoyed this. Trigger warnings: emotional/physical abuse towards a woman. If you can get past that, it’s well worth it, in my opinion. 

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