Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Die Bibliothek am Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

141 reviews

azurae's review against another edition

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

1.5

While I have mixed feelings about this book, I overall really didn't enjoy it. The violence was overdone to the point of being gratuitous, the story didn't flow well, alternating between painfully slow and dropping large storyline bombs quickly, and so many loose ends left unexplored. Many of the characters are never developed at all, for example

Nearly half the librarians were barely mentioned, the enemies were nebulous and barely any info is given on them, many of the mysteries brought up left unexplained etc

The "oh father was the hero all along and had to horrifically torture these kids to make a god, and planned everything out behind the scenes, meaning Carolyn was just a pawn plodding to her destiny" ending was really unsatisfying. The sexual assault scenes were unnecessary and horrible to read, the story would've been better without them. The author himself in interviews has said that he debated heavily with himself on whether to include them, and I feel he made the wrong call. 
However, the writing was really gripping, the library concept was executed well, and I did enjoy some aspects of this book. Dresden & Naga were my favorite characters and the whole lion arc was meaningful and engrossing, albeit sad. 

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bookwormmama's review against another edition

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

3.75

Very strange and disturbing book. Warning: includes gory violence and mentions of sexual assault. 

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wistfulspirit's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

4.5


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meg_elyse's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25


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soaphest's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

5.0

amazing book. started off super strong & only got better as it went on. all the characters were hugely compelling & the story managed to present something great and unknowing without being difficult about it. very excited about anything else the author will write. 

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4jakers18's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.75


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lanid's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense
  • 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

5.0


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bookish_bry's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.75

This book is pretty weird and dark, but overall pretty good. I was able to predict it most of the time, but I don't think the author was really trying to hide anything. The ending was a little eh to me. The climax was very good in my opinion, but it dropped off in a weird way.

I really enjoyed the choice of having a narrator that was intentionally hiding her thoughts from the reader for an in universe reason. That was very fun.

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beccasherman's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny fast-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

1.75


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dananator13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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