Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

58 reviews

logsbooklog's review

challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

this was fantastic; it was nauseating, but has such a powerful core to it. it acts as a refutation towards the attention economy. an ode to the mundanity, and to the people that are robbed of that mundanity. the writing of the 3 core women is near-flawless, and their endings are equal parts satisfying and harrowing. my one gripe with the book actually ends up being ansel himself. while his portions of the book are excellent, his characterization ends up a bit flat for me; weirdly, the closest comparison i can draw to this book is bojack horseman, stories of women harmed by a powerful man and having their stories subsumed by them. ansel, though, does not get the depth that bojack does, certainly at least in part intentionally since so much of the book contends with the idea that who he could have been is nothing in the wake of what the women he killed could have been. however, in the absence of his characterization, he ends up being a stereotype in his own right: the unremarkable sociopath. this is a fair assessment of him, but it made questions in the book of how we integrate people who don’t experience love or care for others into society ring hollow when the only example they have is intentionally flat. this is ultimately a minor gripe though, this is a dense complicated book that will stick with me forever and has just so much to mull on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

vaykay's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

5.0

I read this because I watched @newlynova's YouTube reading vlog "until she read a five star book," and wow... she was right. I sobbed, and I slobbered into my pajama shirt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Police brutality, and Car accident

megan_j's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This was good. It really pointed out everything that was wrong with our current state of justice and how we view ‘true crime’ and the people who commit it, when our focus should be on the victims and what was taken from them. Kept me gripped 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

tm400's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

from the second I picked this book up, it was really hard for me to put it down. this story details the life of a serial killer from multiple different points of view of women in his life affected by his killings. the writing is illustrious and it all played out like a movie in my mind's eye, which i love experiencing when reading. i found it fascinating that the chapters from the killer's pov were written in the second person - it's not something that you see often and i think it was a very interesting choice. i think it was in an attempt to get the reader to *almost* sympathize with the killer but the HUGE GIANT point of the book is that you can't sympathize with serial killers, especially male serial killers that kill predominantly/exclusively women. 
plenty of male serial killers have existed in real life, and time and time again, their stories are the ones that are told & remembered instead of the ones of their victims.

i loved that the last chapter of the book served as a sort of dedication to not only the women in this story who were wronged, but the ones in real life who are no longer with us to tell their story or be full humans alongside us.

 
i loved this story & how it was written. i cried out of anger and frustration more than once, and would recommend to any other thriller enjoyers and anyone else who is sick of the idea of men relishing in fame after their wrongdoings at the hands of a woman's suffering. 5/5 stars for me & would revisit later 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Child death and Racism

bubblybelle's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

1.25

this was just so not what i wanted it to be. i am not in favor of the death penalty, especially given the state of our current justice system. however, i also simply am not going to pity a serial killer who feels absolutely NO remorse for the lives he’s taken. i feel bad for what Ansel endured as a child, but that does not excuse his behavior as an adult. 

there was way too much romanticizing and pitying for a violent criminal throughout this book despite the blurb implying that it would do the opposite. it was only in the last few chapters that it would try to switch that narrative, but by that point it was frankly too little too late for me. 

the fact that Ansel’s pov was in 2nd person was also just annoying. all of his narration made me feel icky and gross. also, the first half of the book had so much random, unnecessary smut. it didn’t really fit in with the story and again just felt icky. i almost dnf’d so many times and frankly i wish i had. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, and Murder

Minor: Drug abuse and Death of parent

santaggy's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

One of the best books I've ever read in my life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Excrement

queenofvrything's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Disturbing, thought-provoking, and sad. Danya Kukafka shows the complexity of humanity through this non-linear tale, where honestly I didn’t feel much more than sadness by the end. The themes that stuck with me begs the questions: what is evil, are the choices made by some fully their own, and if fault can ever be put on just one person?

I’ll admit, adult Ansel made my skin crawl, but a small part of me couldn’t stop thinking of the poor child in the farmhouse, and how different his life could have been. Was he born a psychopath, or did the brain damage from the doorframe cause it? I enjoyed the insight to how his brain worked, how there was indeed both good and bad in him and that he had a core lack of understanding of who he was. Ansel felt like a boat untethered throughout life, until finding the blue house. 

I do love the focus on the victims, both living and dead, and the refusal to forget them as the story progressed. I also love that there was no one way to feel. Danya made the POV characters flawed and real, without pushing a specific narrative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Child death

izypup's review

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Stalking, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

justinareads's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident and Abandonment

jenny_d's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Moderate: Child death