Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver

300 reviews

pages_with_panda's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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

4.0

 Surprisingly tame + lighthearted for the amount of horror content? I thought it was going to be a lot darker but it was a surprisingly good romance?

The fact that they only killed other serial killers also helped their case...


The first half was very murdery/dark but then we transitioned into a kitchen/restaurant book and honestly that was a bit jarring...I kind of forget they were murderers with how relatively normal their lives were?

The Big Baddie was also a bit out of left field? It didn't seem plausible at all and was just a bit unexpected and not in a good way so I took off a star for that....
Spoiler Rant on the Antagonist:
What kind of cover a lobotomized servant anyways? And he just spent months washing dishes and at a care home as a cover? Just to get closer to them? I feel like there were better ways of doing this...Esp. when it was Sloan's idea to drive him cross-country to give him a job. Also, I felt like he wasn't hinted at or teased at all? He just showed up and that's it?


Will probably pick up book 2


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songbirdheather's review against another edition

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

4.0


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jmendez's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5


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now_booking's review against another edition

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

3.0

I’m not quite sure what I was expecting when I got into this but I didn’t expect the horror, blood, gore, dark humour this delivered in spite of the synopsis. The premise is that serial killers (whose victims of choice are serial killers) Rowan and Sloane meet when they go to take care of a serial killer. There is instant attraction and they develop a friendship and competition to bag the worst serial killers while falling in love. But Sloane’s past trauma makes her doubt whether she’s loveable and Rowan’s love manifests as worry for Sloane and the couple has to find their way.

This was interesting and in its way darkly humorous. I just think it was a bit too gory and gross for me. Maybe too dark as well and I say this being an avid reader of dark romance. This was dark in a horror way. If you enjoy movies like Scary Movie or think a parody of a serial killer psychological drama might be your speed, this might be your book. As humorous and readable as this was, I did think it was missing a bit of character and plot development - terrible incidents in Sloane and Rowan’s pasts are alluded to, but it is never quite said what these incidents are, the murders are pretty public and bloody and theatrical yet they do not fear being caught by the police or anyone else, there’s no tension or conflict about getting caught in the act and we’re never quite sure why. Indeed the why of the plot is a little shallow and weak where there could have been a bit more depth and robustness to make the reader sit up a bit so that there are 4 years summarized in a quarter page of text messaging and an annual meet up for a gory murder. The relationships between Sloane and her BFF Lane and between Rowan and his brothers  are surfacey at best when they could have been developed to give us more insights about Sloane and Rowan as characters and make us care a bit more about the secondary cast of friends and siblings who are clearly going to be important in the other books in the trilogy. The sparing detail provided about the characters does not align with the gratuitously explicit nature of the rest of the book and I think that kept this from being a proper 5 star read for me in addition to the matter of it being not quite my taste. It was a bit too spoofy for me without that character and plot development. That said, this WAS sexy and darkly humorous in a horror movie way and I’d recommend it to lovers of horror, gore and dark romance.

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np36011's review against another edition

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

4.75

I really liked this - especially the audiobook version, it was narrated well. While weird I liked the relationships and the overall tropes. The banter was cute, the additional characters were great and I will never eat a beef nicoise salad.

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transcendent's review against another edition

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

4.5

İ didn't go into this expecting anything good, it was released in the peak of slop romance novels that were just pushed on social media as easy reads with no substance but I disagree!
To take a fanfic term: I think that this is P WITH P, the dark comedy really coming in clutch alongside the well thought out plot and characterisation of Butcher and Blackbird making it a very fun read, which I feel as if I've been missing from my neverending rotation of books! 

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sebradley29's review against another edition

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4.5


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coraotf's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

It got real gross a few times, but I kept going ‘cause Sloan and Roan were so freaking funny.  It was an actual romcom mixed with a gory psychological thriller.

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prairieraven's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Highly recommend Reader should read the 2 pages of warnings before beginning, it's at the front of the novel and easy to find

Good read for fans of horror, extreme violence, anti-heros, slasher novels, psychopaths, sociopaths, serial killers, dark romance stories of vengeance, torture, light BDSM, smut, rough sex, sprinkled with wit and dark humour. 

Reads like a Christmas Hallmark movie for violent  serial killers/ psychopaths/ sociopaths 

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coffexco's review against another edition

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

4.0


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