Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Inspection by Josh Malerman

9 reviews

keen's review against another edition

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, and Sexism

Minor: Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Grief

harmonj3's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

I nearly set this book down because the first 130+ pages did not grip me. The prose is a little odd and it really just wasn’t what I had expected. That said, the second act of this book is worth it. I really love that we get a very small glimpse into had everything came to be through the flashbacks and I was really impressed with the 180 this book pulled on me.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, and Murder

schmoobles's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Confinement

hannahstromauthor9's review

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Wow. This was an amazing book that had me hooked from the get-go. The writing and prose was genius in how it displayed dread and paranoia. It made my heart beat faster too. I didn't want to put this book down. 

And what a crazy yet righteous ending. I just want to read more. 

I do wish the kids were older than thirteen so some elements didn't feel so strange, but I also get why the kids had to be that age.

Loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Gore

analea_lucille's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

nrogers_1030's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

voilajean's review against another edition

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

2.0

This was pretty well executed considering how ridiculously heteronormative it was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, and Gaslighting

Minor: Abortion and Acephobia/Arophobia

unabashedlyemma's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-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? No

3.75

I liked the book, and found it interesting and engaging, but the entire conceit is predicated on heterosexuality, with absolutely no mention of other sexualities. It pulled me out of the book to not even mention it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

ollie_again's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I was thinking about giving this book three stars up until the last 20% of the story. Overall the book is not thrilling, did not scare me or even squeezed any emotional response from me. The problem for the most part is that the blurb pretty much tells you everything the book is about and the only thing that is left to unravel is the ending, which was pretty disappointing and took about two chapters of the book.

The last 20% of the book was also kinda gross. The book is about 12-year-old kids, maybe genius kids, but kids nevertheless. On top of that, these kids have no real understanding of the opposite gender (because they were brought up to NOT know about it), sexual attraction, and physical affection but somehow the second they meet face to face, they have the urge to kiss and make out. They're twelve. And they don't have a concept of kissing. Including make out sesh and sexually skewed thoughts of the boy afterwards and I quote: "Just moments ago her body was pressed against yours…her lips touched yours, too…her legs…can you still see her legs?" This tells you the tone of the thought process of a 12-year-old boy after meeting a girl once. Nope, in which universe was this necessary to include this in the book?

And the second thing that bugged me was how the conversation about gender and sex was handled. In this book, there's only a gender binary with no nuance, and while that would be kind of understandable as the kids grow up in a practically agender environment, the lack of any discussion or consideration of non-hetero relationships was pretty off. There are about 50 kids in the experiment but the only scarecrow in the field for the two evil masterminds behind the experiment is a distraction from the opposite gender during "delicate years" which is a code word for puberty.

The finale of the book sealed the low rating for me. The conclusion is way too quick and shallow, with no real elaboration of what happens next. After the slow tempo of the first 300 pages, I was expecting at least some interesting or shocking twist but nope, a quick and low-effort end which was unsatisfactory in every possible way with an extra slice of that 12-year old romance. Yuck.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Kidnapping, Grief, and Gaslighting