Reviews tagging 'War'

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

15 reviews

arce's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

Very good book, at every point of the story I kept wondering what would most likely happen next, sometimes I was right, and it still managed to surprise me.
The explanation is not farfetched and seems reasonable, but I am not completely satisfied with the ending.

Sammy/Hugo doesn't seem to feel anything? Gives me strong psychopath vibes...
Also, what happenes with the other passengers on the island? Do they sail to Amsterdam afterwards?
And I'm definitely not a fan of Sara's solution. I liked neither of the options, but don't have any better on my mind. Vigilante justice is not the right way. Creesjie and Sammy/Hugo shouldn't go without punishment.

I would be interested in the more horror endings Stuart Turton mentioned in the interview at the end of the audiobook.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Excrement, Misogyny, Murder, and Sexism

Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Genocide, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content, Rape, War, and Pregnancy

shinsoukoku's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Minor: Excrement, Child abuse, Vomit, Child death, War, Animal death, Confinement, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

set in the medieval era, there is a brief scene of sara having to fulfill her "obligations" with her abusive husband and multiple threats of assault leading up to a character suggesting they, the men, use the women of the ship as they wish, willing or not.

janetriestoread's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, and War

Minor: Vomit

maddiebusick's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.0

Not bad, lots of twists and turns but I felt it dragged on a little bit which took away from the thrill and suspense of a murder mystery

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Confinement, Excrement, Gaslighting, Gore, Medical content, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Child death, Colonisation, War, Vomit, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, and Gun violence

maiagaia's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.25

Like The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, this book has extremely engaging, compulsively readable prose. I tore through both in only a few days despite their length. The issue is that both have really bad endings. Like book-ruining bad.
The Devil and the Dark Water commits what is, to me, a cardinal sin: a POV character lied to the reader with their own thoughts.

Creesjie is the POV character when she finds the governor general's body. She panics and cries and is frightened in the dark. We find out later that she planned the whole thing and planted a fake murder weapon in the middle of that scene. But we don't see it because it would ruin the mystery. And that's the only reason. It makes zero sense.

There are also multiple instances of chapters ending with a random description of something that the character didn't see. These chapters are written in 3rd person limited, so the random omnipotence is clunky.
The reveal of the twist was bad enough , but the final scene was the expired whipped cream on this shit sundae. We have two well-developed, stubborn characters who do a total about face in the last five pages.

Arent and Sara are both set up as having strict, particular views on morality, yet at the end, they are suddenly willing to look past the hundreds of deaths Creesjie and Pipps caused??? I could maybe buy it if given more time, but 5 pages is NOT enough.

 
At this point, I'm not sure I'll be reading from this author again. He has a wonderful writing style, but the endings are just unforgivable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Violence

Moderate: Genocide, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: War, Vomit, Slavery, Child death, Colonisation, and Confinement