Reviews tagging 'Murder'

These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling

51 reviews

keelirae113's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Torture, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Transphobia and Vomit

fanboyriot's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Read For:

✓ Witches 

✓ Mystery Plot

✓ Good Friends 

✓ LGBTQIA+ Characters

✓ Witch Hunter (we hate you)

˗ˏˋ ★ REVIEW ★ ˎˊ˗

I have mixed feelings about this book but ultimately it was an entertaining read.  I liked the magic and the mystery of who the hunter was.  The friendships were also really nice for the most part.  And the one friendship I was rightfully cautious about ended how I expected.

I wasn’t a big fan of Veronica and all the relationship drama she brought to Hannah’s life.  The character development was good though with how Veronica changed by the end but she was pretty toxic at some parts of this book.  The ending though really annoyed me.  I know there is a second book which I’ll be reading but this ending felt too incomplete with having the witch hunter not be caught.

Spice Level: (it’s mentioned)

Angst Level: 💧💧💧

POV: First Person

Release Date: 28, May 2019

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Biphobia, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gore, Hate crime, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal death and Sexism

thelunarhorizon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

nightworldlove's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Grief, and Car accident

Minor: Death, Gun violence, Murder, and Classism

jei_reads_sometimes's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.0

The audiobook was great at capturing that teen voice without feeling weird.  Would recommend consuming that way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

vagaybond's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense

• Strong character development? It's complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

_nem_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture and Blood

julessssss's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

very cute, with just the right mixture of fantasy and realism, and plenty of plot twists

the only thing is that it is definitely ya and that bothered me just a bit a few times lol 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gun violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

annorabrady's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.0

This book went in many different directions. I almost DNF'd at the beginning then the story started to pick up. And I got into it until I got blindsided by

the parental death. As someone who unexpectedly lost their mom in the last year, that definitely threw me back into the trauma

. 

Overall, I'm not sure how I feel about the story. I gave it a 3 because it was entertaining enough. But this isn't one I am going to revisit. 

If you have emotional triggers, be aware and proceed with caution. This hits on a lot of things that could get people. I've done my best to list the ones I can remember. 

As an aside, this book is not diverse. Beyond the romance and the ex, there's one closeted character who gets little page time and one gay character who gets an even smaller part. Then there's nothing. Everyone is white. If there aren't white characters, they're not described. In real life, Salem has close to 18% of their population identifying as latine and nearly 4% as black. Surely there could have been a friend, family member, or other recurring character who wasn't white. 

After giving myself time to think about it, I genuinely don't understand the purpose of killing off her father beyond shock value. It didn't add anything to the story. She learned nothing new – he died while trying to give her a clue but didn't actually say anything – and her actions didn't change.

It also would have made more sense narratively if he hasn't died, especially in terms of Victoria being left alone after getting her magic back. 

Hannah would have saved Victoria regardless of her father's death. She was just as invested in the identity of the witch hunter before and after his death. And his death didn't add to any of her struggles or character development. He just died. And then he had a funeral. And she said she was upset about it.

Losing a parent changes you. Especially if it's a parent you have a good relationship with. It fundamentally changes so much of your life, your beliefs, and your priorities. And I saw none of that reflected in what Hannah did at the end of the book. Hannah was still the same character, she was just down a parent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

unicornofthesea's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail