Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Intercepts

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Intercepts by T.J. Payne

13 reviews

corriecorriecorrie's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Quick summary: Joe works at a facility that performs human experimentation. His work just followed him home.

I read this booking in one sitting because every chapter left me wondering what would happen next (stressyyyyyy). There were jump scares, plenty of moments were I had no idea if the events were really happening or if they were all in the characters’ heads, and the epilogue was a perfect bow of answers to tie it all together.

A great horror book that won’t leave me so terrified I need a nightlight to sleep. I’ll be recommending it to (aka forcing it upon) my mom and would definitely read again myself.

TW: suicide, gore, human torture

Content Warnings

theaceofpages's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I think this book can best be described as a horror in two (connected) parts: the horror Riley experiences with her grief and apparitions and the horror that the Antennas (dehumanised people that are part of a government experiment) face on a daily basis. And Joe, Riley's dad and a higher up in an antenna facility, is caught in the middle.

This book was... horrifying. Right from the start. And somehow it just managed to get worse and worse as it went on. The ways everyone's minds were being messed with and the ways that the line between reality and lies was blurred was done so well (okay, there was one scene where I was just confused about its inclusion (I literally started glancing around my room with my hands raised because it just came out of nowhere) but that's one of many).

As the book went on and everything kept getting worse as everything ramped up again and again. I just kept feeling more and more for Riley who was innocent in it all and was just going through an all around bad time. Joes should have been there for her. She deserves so much live and therapy. Everyone else? Yeah, they kind of sucked. Some understandably so, but I am still shocked by the amount of messed up things that happened in this book. Maybe some events were a little too convenient, but not so much that they veer into unbelievable territory. And the whole concept? Maybe the outcome of the experimentation isn't all that believable but the cruelty that lead to them actually happening is far too real.

And the ending... (not much of a spoiler but just in case)

As things started heading towards the conclusion my mind kept racing ahead due to a niggling little horrible thought in the back of my mind about where it could be going.

Overall it was so well executed. It's been a little while since I read this (I'm behind on reviews) and this one has definitely stuck with me. There are several ideas and moments that have stuck with me as if I read this yesterday. I'll be keeping an eye out for more books by this author!

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