Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Mroczna materia by Blake Crouch

27 reviews

maddie_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I really liked the premise of the book, some in interesting ideas, but didn't love the execution.

I didn't think the characterization was great

Wished Jason felt more developed/ more science-y. He felt very dude-bro to me. Didn't like that he didn't feel guilty about Jason 2's Daniella dying. Wished Daniella was more developed, I didn't feel like I knew her at all. Really didn't appreciate that the only other female character, Amanda, was seemingly just chucked in with Jason so that he'd have someone to freak out with/ talk to during his adventure and was not fleshed out as a real character. Like she just gave up her entire world for a colleague?

. 
The main character felt like he was making really stupid decisions a lot of the time which took me out of the book a bit because it made me think about why tf he wasn't doing something else

like him continuing to go into a quarantined world, him and Amanda not trying to find more ampoules - like they can go into any world, so they could've definitely found some more go bags with more ampoules ? Why didn't they ever try to find the friend that made the secret ingredient?

The writing felt a bit clunky sometimes, felt like it was written more to be a screenplay for tv show or movie

like when Jason goes into his other self's house and it just goes on and on repeatedly "like this is different in my house"

. But this did make the novel easy to visualize.

Pacing was a bit inconsistent, felt like it wrapped up too quickly given how much build up there was.
A bit too predictable. 

I was hoping the romance plotline was going to be more engaging/ interesting and felt disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Rape and Abortion

ababytapir's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

Like Recursion, Dark Matter is fantastically mind-bending and all too easy to read in a day. It's incredibly violent and thought provoking. If you like your sci fi thrillers tinged with horror, existential dread and romance, this is the book for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Cancer, Rape, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

If you struggle with derealisation, dissociation or depersonalisation, or any sort of identify disorder, this book could potentially be incredibly triggering. Proceed with extreme caution. Violence warning: There is an incredibly detailed description of a gory epidemic/pandemic. There are multiple gory descriptions of dead bodies, murder, and horrific natural disasters. There is a long kidnapping scene. There's multiple instances of stalking.

one_womanarmy's review against another edition

dark informative sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

An excellent romp through quantum entanglement and multiverse theory, with Blake Crouch's usual romantic nihilism and fast violence to keep the blood pumping. A grand finale collates around a somewhat over explored set of central themes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

boop123's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual content, Torture, and Car accident

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

sarah_amy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

What would you do if you were forced out of your own reality and thrown into several other realities of paths you had not taken (or were simply lucky to avoid based on other decisions in your life)...all the while several alternate versions of yourselves were experiencing the same thing? Could you get back to your original life? And what if several other versions of you believed that life belonged to them?
A mind-bending, gripping journey that had me hooked. I couldn't wait to see how it was going to end but I also didn't want it to!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Drug use, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Apart from the kidnapping that occurs that kicks off the major plot of this story, most of these triggers are either briefly mentioned or the protagonist sees the aftermath of what he has assumed to these people. Most of the time does not go into great detail apart from acknowledgement they look to have suffered/are suffering. Most graphic comes near the conclusion, during an alternate universe where there is a pandemic - the effects of the disease go into a little more detail, and some of the injuries one or 2 of these alternate Jason's have suffered.

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.75

The good:  I enjoyed the UberChat.  I felt that right when that was introduced a different ending could have spawned that turned into a lighthearted rom-com and I like to imagine that.

The bad:  I knew pretty early on that this was not going to be a favorite.  I don't read a lot of thrillers in general but I enjoy sci-fi so I figured I would give it a shot.  I couldn't stand the main character.  And thus, the book was doomed in my eyes.  The pacing was jumpy, and the plot was predictable (as in, I guessed what really happened in the first chapter and the main character didn't figure it out until the ~50% mark).  There was some promise for some thoughtful introspection but the approach was heavy-handed at best.  Some of the descriptions were vivid and others were flat out whacky.

I don't know if I will try another book by the author, but I don't think I was the intended audience for this work so who knows what the future holds.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

katiefurms's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Not only is this an incredible concept for a story, but it is so phenomenally well written that i could not put it down. Absolutely incredible book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Cannibalism, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

louisallama's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

s1effe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Kidnapping

Moderate: Torture

bywayof's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and War