Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

155 reviews

mmmsnacks's review

dark emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism

lisettemarie's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, and Murder

jvanwyen's review

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Dark, but made me think. Author did a good job of making Ansel’s story layered. Despite his “manuscript” being written off in the story by other characters, the questions posed were interesting for me to think about. 

I wonder why Lila’s voice was excluded in the last chapter in favor of her daughter, when we got to hear from the other 3 victims directly. I didn’t like that choice. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use and Murder

jennyf1sh's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Alcoholism

booksbri's review

dark informative reflective slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Racism, Torture, Violence, and Alcohol

katwritesandreads7's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-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

2.75

...look... I wanted to love this so much. I really did. But it dragged on and the serial killer character had no redeeming qualities. Very few of the characters were loveable and I really wish the author had taken this in another direction. One of the characters gets betrayed and we never find out why and never see that character again. I was just so frustrated with the missed potential of this read. It was by no means a BAD book... It was comprehensive and had a good plot... But for me, it was missing so much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

ashleymg99's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was a book i was skeptical about. as a former true crime junkie, i’ve grown weary of the way we talk about real life tragedy, as if it’s a piece of salacious gossip. Too many times are cases talked about callously, carelessly, and real people suffer because of this.

What drew me to true crime is the curiosity of “What makes a person do THAT?” and anyone who spends any amount of time will have a lot of answers, patterns that we look for that have clearly damned theses poor monsters. Abusive parents, a hit to the head at a young age, various traumas that explain away why they weren’t quite right in the head. 

At first, I was afraid that Notes was going to focus on the wasted brilliance of Ansel Packer, the evil genius who got away with murder, until he didn’t. A poor child who never had a chance to be anything but tragic. but what was surprisingly refreshing was that as you go on, the book gives him no grace. He is revealed to be exactly what he is, middling intelligence, cruel, selfish, and ultimately, a man who is nothing special. 

There are millions of men out there who want to hurt women—people seem to think that Ansel Packer is extraordinary, because he actually did.

I devoured this book. while this is not based on a real crime, the story is not far from not just one, but dozens, hundreds of real life cases. It handles every character with care and grace, even Ansel, in the end, in a way he doesn’t deserve. He’s give the voice that his victims don’t have, and realizes that just the fact that he could have been good in another time and place  isn’t enough to undo the evil he’s done in the here and now. 

This is not a crime drama, a whodunnit mystery, or an exploration of the twisted mind of a serial killer. it is the stories of many fractured individuals, weaving together a tragic fabric that urges the reader to reflect on life, death, justice, and humanity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Racism, Violence, Car accident, Murder, and Pregnancy

nclausel25's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

Minor: Pregnancy

mand_al_orian's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

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