Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Laws of the Skies by Grégoire Courtois

31 reviews

charmarie's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

cwiita'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Bordered on feeling unrealistic in the sense that the verbal communication and (hopefully) barbarity of children has its limits, but usually managed to turn the worst moments into something worthwhile.
I find the perspective interesting, mainly the way that Courtois acknowledged and discusses children’s realities and fears through the language and context of adult understandings. 
Initially I struggled to grasp the timeline and the way our focus as an audience shifts so frequently, but eventually I realized how important it was to the film-like pacing and building of suspense. 
It made for a very interesting read, with some decent gore.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, and Excrement

Minor: Stalking

mblanke's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

madamesmiley's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A shattering, challenging but incredibly fast read about the reason educators are required to maintain adult to child ratios. As a teacher, this is now my worst case scenario. 
Stories about children in survival scenarios always chill me, and draw me. I see the social dynamics of my students played out in small, horrible ways that seem all too plausible.
The transitions in this book are incredible. They have a frenetic, almost liquid quality of plopping the reader from one horror to the next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Torture, Blood, Vomit, and Murder

thebookcloser's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book was everything I imagined and more. 😍 If you loved Lord of the Flies, this book is your gold mine. LOTS is a modern take on this classic but I would say the darker, adult version. 

I saw many reviews on Goodreads that poorly rated this book because you had to “suspend your disbelief.” This is a true horror book in every form and those that rated based on that missed the point of this book. 

For another reader to get the same “wow” factor it gave me.. I can’t spoil, but if this book peaks your interest know the themes are deep and they are the biggest takeaway from the story which is why I picked it up to begin with. 🖤

Lastly, the writing style is unique. There is no “chapters,” there are obvious “breaks.” POVs would jump sometimes between paragraphs but it became easy to follow once I understood. I actually enjoyed it. 😊

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty

itsjustgrumpy's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

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

4.25

Winnie the Pooh meets The Troop (minus the monster). It was heartbreaking but also surprisingly heartfelt at times. You couldn't help but feel for all of the characters, even Enzo, in the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Stalking

maiiau's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

m3l3fic3nt's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

nat2r's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

The writing in this book was fun to read, but aside from that...there's nothing really compelling me to recommend this to anyone 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

meminger's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.25

i’m just gonna list out the causes of death under the spoiler tags because i think the spoiler tags don’t give quite enough of an indicator of what you should expect. brutal book. don’t read it at work like i did.

car crash into lake, bludgeoned by a rock, throat stabbed to death, hit by a truck, poisoned by berries, drowned, beaten to death, fell off a cliff, suffocated, graphically eaten alive by a wild boar, starved to death, and an unclear violent one. also a shit ton of corpse mutilation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail