Reviews tagging 'Violence'

A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers

11 reviews

mels_reading_log's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book follows Jenny, who is a spiritualist that performs seances for the rich as a ruse to steal from them. She knows ghosts aren’t real. When she is arrested and her only chance for to avoid the gallows is to perform one last reading, she agrees. That is until she gets to the home and realizes it may actually be haunted. 

Not at any point could I predict how this mystery was going to pan out. This book was wild. I liked how it was spooky but not enough to give you nightmares.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Violence

Moderate: Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Suicide and Fire/Fire injury

clarabooksit's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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: Mental illness and Violence

Moderate: Death, Sexism, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Classism

Minor: Incest and Slavery

mattiedancer's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Writing: 3⭐️/5 

The writing in this novel is fine. Near the end – or the further I got into the book – the more Myers seemed to find a writing flow. However, a couple chapters or so into the book, I realized that several paragraphs were formatted nearly the same length with sentences of exactly (or nearly exactly) the same length with the same rhythm. Once I noticed this, it was hard to keep reading as it gave a very boring, dry sound to every piece of action, despite the story being utterly compelling. Eventually, this kind of fell away, but it never fully left, and it really struck me as quite hard to continue reading.

Characters: 3.5⭐️/5

Alright, so the characters are interesting, but also inconsistent at various points. I felt like some of the backstory was thrown in almost too conveniently and it gave a lack of polish to the characters. However, I did find our MC and our main love interest compelling and – as the story continued – they grew nicely (if conveniently) enough to keep me engaged and happy.

Plot: 4⭐️/5 

The plot started strong. We have a crooked medium who robs her clients in order to pay her rent. We have a conveniently rich man who has need of her fake services. And we have a murder – or suicide? – that we need to solve. Compelling, right? I loved the main plot. For as predictable as some turns were, it remained fun and fresh in feeling enough to keep me thoroughly engaged. However, my main gripe is with the ending, which felt like way too much, too soon. For some reason, Myers chose to use about the final 20-30 pages to wrap up every little thread possible – including several that really should have been left alone. The overwriting of the ending was hard to deal with, especially after a fun journey.

Who Should Read This Book? 

• Fans of fantasy and mystery novels
• Fans of mystery novels looking for a fresh plot
• Fans of historical mystery novels with a side dish of romance
• Readers of the above persuasion looking for plot overwriting

Content Warnings? 

Murder, gaslighting, mental illness, stalking, police brutality (minor), child abuse, death, pregnancy, miscarriage, incest, violence, injury, injury detail, blood, grief, gore, confinement, drowning, infidelity, toxic relationship, misogyny, sexism, slavery (minor), emotional abuse, physical abuse, suicide, animal death (minor)

Post-Reading Rating:  3.5⭐️/5

Oh, if only it hadn’t tried to wrap up every tiny thread in the last bit of the novel, I could have loved it so much more.

Final Rating: 3.5⭐️/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Slavery, and Police brutality

cassie7e's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

Didn't find the romance part compelling - it didn't build up believabIy or with any chemistry - but I loved the intrigue and twists! Fortunately the romance was a subplot and not as important. I never fully guessed what was happening but my suspicions were in the right place, which was a nice balance.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Incest, Miscarriage, Suicide, and Violence

bessadams's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Mental illness and Miscarriage

katieconrad's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death and Incest

blewballoon's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

I had low expectations for this book, and then I found myself getting super into it. I listened to it on audiobook (good narrator) and I found myself wanting to get back to it and thinking about it when I wasn't listening. Sometimes with audiobooks my mind drifts and I miss things, but I was laser focused and trying to piece all the information together and make deductions and predictions. I was happy I figured some stuff out, but there were also a couple twists that I enjoyed. There was a twist towards the end that kind of ruined the story a bit for me

I understand the dramatic irony of having the main character fooled into thinking there is a ghost when she has been peddling false ones herself, but I always prefer my stories to have actual supernatural stuff rather than just "maybe supernatural, oh just kidding."

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I also was really sad at what happened to Audra's character. I wish she hadn't just flipped a switch and gone so violent so suddenly. It was a bit foreshadowed with her family history, but it felt too out of character with the rest of her story.

, but the following events and epilogue helped make up for it, so I wasn't too disappointed and still came away with an overall positive experience. Great spooky seaside estate vibes, lots of twists and mysteries, very suspenseful. Nothing super graphic happens on the page. The main character was fairly clever and observant

although I feel like she dropped the ball/picked up the idiot ball a few times

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The romance was actually decent, I liked them together.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicide, Murder, and Pregnancy

erinoco's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Minor: Incest, Sexism, Vomit, and Police brutality

vasha's review against another edition

mysterious tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Violence, and Trafficking

Moderate: Miscarriage, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death and Blood

Content warning: This book contains a very caricatured depiction of mental illness as "homicidal mania"

kshertz's review

dark mysterious tense 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? No

4.0

This was a quick read for me! I was very interested in this woman. I didn’t realize she was 18?! Until halfway through when she learns she might not make it to 19. I saw her as an old woman which interferes with the love interest aspect later for me. But I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen to everyone in this creepy haunted house. I’m not 100% sure her moms story was necessary to be included? But it was. The big twist makes up for it! I recommend it as an interesting mystery book. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, and Pregnancy