Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

So finster die Nacht by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Paul Berf

10 reviews

solnit_and_sebastian's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I watched the film years ago and finally got around to reading the source material. Certainly not for the squeamish! This is the type of story that had me chuckling and then cringing with discomfort on the same page. A hell of a ride, and kept my interest!

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ruthmoog's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

3.75

Narrated by Steven Pacey.

The narration was a bit hard to follow, some of the accent choices for characters were random and distracting, and given that they did a good job pronouncing Swedish words and places I was confused! It wasn't always clear when the context changed which made the story hard to follow as we would change character often, and so I would lose the thread and get distracted - I'm disappointed I didn't enjoy it as much as other readers, I think this was why. I couldn't get lost in it.

It's disgusting, but gripping and interesting. The pace is choppy going from high drama to mundane quite sharply. 
Sections start with quotes (which is a trait I don't enjoy) but I did smile to get a Bob Hund quote in there!

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hambo221's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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amandalove2bme's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense 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

4.0


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athompson0429's review against another edition

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

5.0

This is a great coming-of-age horror that has a lot of interesting characters.  

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elvenpanther's review against another edition

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

4.25

Lindqvist managed to write this in such a way, that despite being uncomfortable at how twisted much of this novel was, I was throughly engrossed and could not put it down. I enjoyed how he wove the story through the view points of several members of the community and how he tied all of those "individual" narratives together.
This novel was dark, and gritty, and explored so much more than "monster" trope. In a way, it focused on how monstrous people could be. How sometimes it's not what goes bump in the night that you need to fear, but instead your neighbor or your classmate. It explored broken people, broken families and broken children and their struggle to navigate the world when they feel alone.
I didn't really know what to expect when starting this, and yes some parts of the novel made me squirm, but overall I enjoyed it. I had watched the Swedish film adaptation after and I will say I appreciate how much more in depth the book went. It made for a much more complex and visceral narrative than the movie.
*As a warning, the book does strongly contain the topic of pedophilia*

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jaedia's review against another edition

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Did not enjoy
the paedophile perspective. At all. Why? I'm sure something comes of it later but ew
. The writing style was fine enough to read but the story itself just felt too mundane and I couldn't get interested. None of the characters were interesting to me, or loveable. Even when
the vampire attacks somebody
there was no excitement there, I didn't feel gripped, no suspense. I was just bored. Decided not to waste my time further. It may well pick up but many books to read, little time!

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lizardgod's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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


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vixenreader's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Despite being overstuffed, it has a lot of bite, and pathos. 

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mliereads's review against another edition

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

4.0


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