Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

25 reviews

zag95's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Sexual harassment

araebird's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

It's been a long time since I read a horror, and I'm glad I got back into it with this one. While it's chunky (at 600+ pages), like a lot of Wendig's books, he spends time building up the characters and the setting before any of the actual plot takes place. There is a sense of unease throughout the book, and really amps up after half way. Most of the characters are absolutely detestable, but that makes the story all the more believable when things go wrong. 
Honestly I would never have thought that a book about an evil apple orchard would be this compelling, but I couldn't put it down. Check trigger warnings (especially for body gore, there's a lot of it).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Gun violence, Torture, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Biphobia, Mental illness, Suicide, and Police brutality

atamano's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Classism

abbyweber's review

dark mysterious reflective 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

3.75

Ok 3.5 stars. Maybe even close to 4? The first third of this book was great. Then I started to get over it but then the last third was great again. This story was so good, even if it should have been about 200 pages shorter. Even books about demonic cult apples don’t need to be 600+ pages. But seriously… demonic cult apples?! It was strange and weird and f’d up sometimes and annoying sometimes and overly long, but it was great writing and a fantastic story. A little more body horror than I like, but it all was forgiven because ultimately, this was a book about good and evil and a goddamn demonic apple cult! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Murder

ladykatka's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Every child eventually learns that their parent isn't perfect, but this book taught Calla one hell of a lesson.

I love a good Faustian bargain and I'm pretty sure this one counts. I haven't read a 600 page book and I really long time and I read this one in 3 days so clearly I enjoyed it. However, it turned from creepy and atmospheric for 75% of the book to instant body horror in the last 25%. So that took me by surprise. I also had to rate this down half a star because Emily was annoying and I didn't like that

John had the perfect death and then they brought him back just so that there could be a happy ending for the main characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

uncreativeoops's review

dark mysterious tense slow-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

2.5

Nearly DNFed but then just skimmed the middle part because the plot was actually interesting. The characters just annoyed me. In theory, they sounded intriguing but in execution they were too one-dimensional, like each had one characteristic that described them (the author even does that at the end) and that's all they think about. It got better when they interacted with each other and not just the side characters of their backstories but that happened pretty late. This book is slow and I actually would have enjoyed that if I had connected with the characters more.
Ironically, I now want to go to a farmer's market and try new heirloom apples. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Suicide, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

cavernism's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

If I hear the word "frisson" one more time...

Okay, nitpicking aside, this was an epic horror novel. The terrifying devolution of the apple-eaters into inconsiderate assholes and then further into actual monsters kept ratcheting up to a truly horrific, body-horror-cult-weirdness-extravaganza. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Police brutality, Grief, and Murder

maryellen's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity

mwbuntin's review

challenging dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder

imstephtacular's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicide, Vomit, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Police brutality, Grief, Car accident, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol