Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Sinner by Shantel Tessier

83 reviews

jessblibrarys's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.75

This book was too much for me.

There was too much miscommunication between Sin and Elli which made the book 2x longer than it shouod have been.

This book would've been wonderful if it was 300 pages but there was about 150 pages that I had to skim read in order to keep my sanity, which I don't like doing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

katelyndunne01's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

hilary89's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-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

1.5

Basically just trauma porn with a super convoluted plot. I'm not sure if it's because I listened to the audiobook rather than reading it, but midway through I totally lost the plot and spent most of the rest of the book confused. The only reason I stuck with it was I had to many questions that needed answers (and I guess they were answered by the end, sort of). It was especially irritating because the book was ridiculously long (17+ hr) and it took forever to get any answers.

The only character that received any real development was Ellie... it was never explained why Sin is the way he is and how he became so shitty. 

Lots of sex... all exploitative and very little of it consensual. That's not really a dealbreaker for me, but it got super repetitive. 

Basically, it was a book trying desperately to push dark romance/erotica boundaries but it was all just poorly executed. 

The only side character in this universe I'm interested in is Tyson and he's the focus of the next book so I might still give it a try, but if it's as much of a mess as this one I'll just DNF and cut my loses.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder

iida_a's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

alex_bousquet's review against another edition

challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

kpress15's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

This was sex with a sprinkle of plot. It also just felt like one bad thing after another happened to our FMC. I wanted to like it more. - the spice was spicy! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

hereiskyra's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

 Once again, off to a wild start and it barely slowed down. Sin wasn’t your typical MMC. It took a lot longer to warm up to him than I anticipated. I liked Elli a lot sooner, though. She was the definition of damaged and had a really rich, albeit traumatic, backstory. 

I felt a lot more emotionally for Elli and all the ways in which she suffered through her childhood and young adulthood. I can’t imagine a lot of women would be able to function if they had gone through some of the things she had. Not that she was “thriving” or anything, I mean she had some terrible coping mechanisms and surrounded herself with some of the most toxic people… but she was able to maintain some relationships and she still managed to live her life. 

Honestly, I feel like the way Sin handled her wasn’t what we normally see with victims like Elli. Usually we see them healing and being shown a healthy love… instead this was more toxic love and “push through the pain” vibes rather than any healing. Sin loved her the only way he could and that looked different. But I will say, he absolutely accepted her the way she was and didn’t try to change a thing about her. 

There were a lot of characters that absolutely sucked but her mother deserved a special place in hell. I love the element of revenge and that Sin made sure everyone got what was coming to them in one way or another, whether that be death or torture. 

I’m not sure how Sin and Elli got to a healthy enough place to have a family so quickly but I loved that 18 year check-in. It’s always satisfying to see a conclusion and happy ending for characters who’ve been through so much to get there. 

Tropes: 

Obsessed MMC
Stalker/Secret Identity

Best Friends Brother

College Secret Society

Touch Her and Die

Kinks/BDSM

Spice:

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

kitsuthebookworm's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.75

The last 40-50% saved it because I hated this book in the beginning, the plot came in way too late, and it's no match to The Ritual, it's not the CNC that phased me but the ratio of plot and spice is awful to the point where you don't enjoy the spice and end up skimming through it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Blood, and Death of parent

lc9939's review against another edition

challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Drug use, Torture, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Pregnancy

leshalea30's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Ellington was a hard character to connect with. She's been through a lot, but it annoyed me how often she turned to drugs and let herself be hurt.
 Sin.... not better than Ryat. I wanted to punch him after the halfway point. It got very confusing with the secrets, but when the story unfolded... it was astounding.  

It's super spicy.

 I can't wait to read The Sacrifice and Carnage. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Vomit, and Stalking

Minor: Pregnancy