Reviews tagging 'Murder'

L'estate che sciolse ogni cosa, by Tiffany McDaniel

12 reviews

abbruzzese's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

beautiful. heart-wrenching. elegantly written.

this book is like the temptation of the burning flame—impossible to turn away from; painful to the touch.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Racism, Blood, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, and Outing

Moderate: Violence, Suicide attempt, Miscarriage, and Death

Minor: Child abuse

emily_stimmel's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Homophobia, Murder, Child abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Animal death and Child death

kayleighcanread's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Murder, Homophobia, and Grief

Moderate: Animal death and Bullying

Minor: Cannibalism and Rape

ellyra's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, Xenophobia, Murder, and Homophobia

Moderate: Torture

christcore's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Incredible. Extremely intense. Check content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Murder, Suicide, Violence, Racism, and Animal death

Moderate: Sexual content, Child abuse, Gun violence, and Homophobia

divafern's review against another edition

Absolutely maudlin. Without going too far into it, it tries to do too much. The writing is interesting in some places and yet liberally peppered with laughably bad metaphors and tired stereotypes. Just see the list of content warnings to get a feel for the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Outing, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Child abuse, Grief, Miscarriage, Murder, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Alcoholism, Suicide, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Abandonment, Child death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Police brutality

penelopeja's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Physical abuse, Homophobia, and Murder

melsbookshelves03's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

4.5 rounding up to 5 for Goodreads. I really enjoyed this one a lot. I didn't know what to expect when starting in terms of tone or atmosphere, but immediately fell into the small town southern gothic vibes the author was writing on the page. I liked the almost lyricist-esque prose in parts but some may find it a bit much. To me, the writing was fantastic and really cemented me in that time period and place. I listened to this one on audio and thought the narrator was absolutely fantastic. He did an amazing job of giving off the right atmosphere in his narration. The one complaint I have of this book is that Fielding is telling the reader parts of his life story that do not coincide with the summer the main chunk of the book is about. These parts where the timeline jumps to other years and days felt very jarring and confusing at times because there is no signal that lets the reader know he is now talking about another part of his life. Other than that, I found it to be a very atmospherical and enjoyable read (despite all the tragedy within). I think this would be most interesting to reread at some point having the knowledge of the ending at hand.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, and Racism

rcampbell's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This is the second of Tiffany McDaniel's books that I have read, 'Betty' being one of my favourite books last year.

This has the same dark, other-worldly, southern gothic feel to it. The story follows one boy, his family and the rural town he grows up in over one summer. Lots of moral lessons regarding religion, the "devil" amongst us and what evil is, were heavy going and not the most subtle but thoroughly enjoyed the story telling and use of language. 

The setting is perfect and clearly one that McDaniels knows well. The heat and stiffling sense of the town was tangible, building as the tension in the story grew.

One reservation I have is in McDaniel's characterisation of the town's apparently only person with a disability as angry and bitter and being the 'evil villain' figure in the plot. This particular trope felt outdated and the book was written in 2016. Think this is a bit lazy and has the potential to perpetuate long-standing harmful trope of connecting disfigurement/disability with villainy. Or maybe this was the point....?!

I will look out for her future publications as I enjoy her use of setting, language and story telling and raced through this book in a couple of days. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual violence, Violence, Suicide, Murder, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

happyreadings's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This was a such an unsettling novel about a town in the middle of a heat wave and the devil. When Sal shows up unexpectedly after Autopsy Bliss sent out an invitation for the Devil to come, he claims he's the devil. A thirteen year old black boy in the middle of Breathed, Ohio. The Bliss family takes him in with no questions. When accidents happen when Sal is around, people in the town are too quick to blame it on him, the devil. 

Fielding, Autopsy's son, becomes close with Sal and learns where Sal came from and the trauma he went through with his abusive family. However, word spreads of Sal being the devil and a cult forms. Things escalate at the end of the summer when the cult takes it too far and the heat becomes too much. 

This book was a lot but if you've read Betty, by Tiffany McDaniels, then you'll understand this is her kind of story telling. This story had a lot of lessons mostly being not to judge something just because we're told that it is bad. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Murder, Racism, and Suicide