Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Bright Lands by John Fram

10 reviews

ramintah's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Sexual assault, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Murder, Drug abuse, and Gun violence

mr_cain's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

This book has so many twists and turns, it's a beautiful maze. It had me sobbing at the end.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Drug abuse, Violence, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Outing, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cursing, Sexual content, and Grief

Moderate: Body horror, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Homophobia

Minor: Death of parent, Suicide, Vomit, and Addiction

eegrasse's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit

thingquail's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, and Gun violence

juliezantopoulos's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

I can respect that this is an own voices thriller/horror and appreciate it for that, but this wasn't for me. I understand the commentary on toxic masculinity, especially in sports and in the south. However, the "horror" in this book was not actually scary. I really thought I was getting a horror book and instead I got a murder mystery. I know this is an own voices book with a gay main character, but the use of queer slurs and homophobia was too rampant for me. Which is not to say it's not a reality, but I didn't want to read it....especially with the direction the book went! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Racism, and Police brutality

book_banter's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

What a wild ride! I think I was expecting more thriller than horror but then I wasn’t mad about it. That last 1/3rd though! I loved that the depravity in this boon was actually all about exploitation others and repression of true self.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Homophobia, Death, and Sexual violence

miranda2021's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Moderate: Death

katelynprice's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

I was really into the mood, atmosphere, and mystery of this book. The first 70% was really good, and then...it got weird. I realize that there is a social commentary going on here, but I am just not a fan of the execution.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gore, and Homophobia

alexdicanio's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The first 25% of this book, I wasn’t too sure if I would like it, but I kept on pushing. It doesn’t start out slow necessarily, I just wasn’t into it. I am glad that I kept reading. I say that the cast being diverse is complicated because while there is representation for people of color (minimal -1 or 2), and people (specifically men) in the LGBTQIA+ community, the setting is a small conservative town in Texas, so for the most part, people are hiding and are scared to truly be themselves. I don’t want to give anything away because it is hard to explain without spoiling something. This book deals very heavily with homophobia, racism, and sexual assault - so please be warned. I think it was written very well and I did enjoy all of the different character’s POV’s. What kind of threw me off guard was this added sort of “supernatural” element. It wasn’t, bad I just didn’t expect it. I understand why it was in there, but I also think this could have been an excellent book if the supernatural wasn’t there. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

There are a lot of trigger warnings for this book. I wasn’t too sure where to put the warning for “adult/minor relationship” because it isn’t gone into a lot of detail. There are however, mentions of figures of authority and students being in a (primarily sexual) relationship. I can’t say much else without giving it away.

florencia's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This is a pretty solid debut. The mystery is intricate enough to keep you interested, but not difficult to follow and it ties up nicely.
The small town vibe is really well achieved, and I loved the level of wtf throughout the story. There's a lot of shitty people, and shitty situations and an overall feeling of dirtyness in this town.

We have different points of view, most of which I really enjoyed and felt that added well to the story. I specially enjoyed the badass woman police officer that's really tenacious and goes against the bullshit of this town. (Every female character was pretty badass , which I appreciate).

There were some relevant themes explored here, like sexuality, shame and toxic masculinity.

The only reason I didn't enjoy it more is because it's a pretty plot driven book, and though we learn a little bit about some of the characters backgrounds, I never fell in love with them. (We do learn enough to at least care about them)

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug use, and Sexual assault