Reviews tagging 'Murder'

White Tears by Hari Kunzru

4 reviews

arnoles's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

5.0

I sometimes really struggle with books that leave a lot of things unexplained, so at first I was leaning more toward the 4 star range. However, I have not been able to stop thinking about this book since I finished it. It was absolutely captivating, a ghost story predicated on true, real life horror. The several different timelines bleeding together were all compelling and the last 10% or so of the book tied them together in a way that was simply genius. I really enjoyed the writing style, very matter of fact and frank. Yes, there are many unexplained elements, but there's still a clear resolution to the story -- therefore, for me, this is a 5 star read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Rape

Minor: Suicide

booitsnathalie's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racism, Torture, Police brutality, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Drug use, Slavery, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Minor: Sexual assault and Medical content

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

spaghettireads's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

About a week out from finishing this and I still don’t know what to think. It was a book club selection for this month, and I absolutely needed to discuss it at the end. I needed to talk out what we thought actually happened in the story.

There were parts I really enjoyed and thought the book did really well. The details about record collecting, and making music from old tracks was described really well, and successfully made me care about something I didn’t before reading the book. The overall themes of race and cultural appropriation in music, were also done well.

What didn’t work for me was the sudden change of pace and tone of the book. The last third of the book felt like an entirely different book than the first two thirds. While I can see why the change happened, and how it was a part of the narrative, it left me quite confused about what happened.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Police brutality, Medical trauma, and Murder