Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Small Favors by Erin A. Craig

31 reviews

lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

A chilling tale perfect for fans of The Village, but with an even more gruesome twist. This is not one to listen to at night!! As an oldest daughter, I found Ellorie’s stress and burdens remarkably plausible.

Be aware of potentially triggering content including religious trauma, gore, blood, fire injury, hangings, hallucinations, animal death, and prominent character death. THIS IS A HORROR NOVEL.

Sadly I found the open ending to be dissatisfying; otherwise this would have been a 5 star read for me. I would have preferred either more confirmed closure OR an all-out horror ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death

ashlikes's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, and Religious bigotry

mpurdy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.5

I was utterly enthralled in this story. It gave me a rumpelstiltskin retelling feel. It was a page turning favorite. I fell in love with so many characters and felt there pain but at the same time grew to despise others. I gave it 4.5 because I had two unanswered questions. 

 
are her parents alive? I mean I figure they are because of how it ended but I would have liked to get the confirmation. My other question I guess is I wanted to see how Sam really grew so dark? Or was he always that way? I wanted a replay more of when he made
 his bargain with the "queen". And how absolutely messed up that he was so readily to offer his twin like wtf. Like was he just mad that his dad respected Ellerie more and that set him off?!
This isn't a spoiler but if you have read this wouldnt it have been kinda cool if Ezra the real Ezra had joined the Kindred to spare the town a little longer? I enjoyed the backstory on the first hanging in Amnity Falls not the hanging itself but how famlies have been at eachother at the start. Looping back to what the "Queen"  said about how the violence was here they just kinda helped it along.

All in all it was a great book and has become a favorite that I will cherish in my collection. I am looking forward to reading her debut novel. I really enjoyed her writing. It was the perfect amount of flowery imagery, loveable characters that were soooooo easy to connect to, and a dark fairytalk/folklore that I cannot get enough of.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

annierose's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

Moderate: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

magellen's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Hooray for a sophomore success! This book is much more cohesive than House of Salt and Sorrows- that said, it still takes a *long long* time to set things up. 3/8ths of the way in felt like the inciting moments, the plot finally showing up to the party.

Once it's in motion, the plot carries along on its own. The nebulous setting flounders through the front half, making it hard to tell just when and where we are, which winds up making it feel like The Village for a stretch. Though it lacks much flavor for voice, the moments of tension/horror are well built and sustained on a razor wire, satisfying to squirm over - there is a lot of blood in this book and talk of the smell of blood so heads up.

Overall, it's a stellar follow up that leans into the fear and reality more than the frothy illusion of S&S. It runs long, or slow, depending how you consider the word count load but it does eventually find uses for most of those words. With yet again a large cast, there's a lot of threads to tie at the end and only a handful of them stay knotted.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

allycat21's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

lots of bees/insects

little_enigmas49's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Gore and Blood

bwwilhelm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is not for the faint of heart, but it was damn good! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

marchhare89's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

“Would you follow me into the underworld?”

This just might be my favorite book of the year so far as well as an all time favorite. It was so much more than I expected and I was absolutely blown away. I saw someone describe this as “prairie horror”, which is something that felt made for me. It’s like The Village mixed with Midnight Mass. Small Favors is unsettling, immersive, atmospheric, and beautifully dark. Unending stars from me. 5 is not enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pregnancy