Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

Kastanjemanden by Søren Sveistrup

19 reviews

cosyskog's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I honestly thought I hated this book. After reading the first 125 pages, it felt like the story was crawling along even though I recognised this was to give a broader depth to the characters and their relationships. So I gave myself a break and put the book down for a month. 

When I picked it back up, I read the last 400 pages in 2 nights as I was invested in how the mystery unravelled itself. 

A few brief parts describing the women characters,especially as viewed by others, are written from the perspective of the male gaze and didn't seem to really add value to the characters. Unless the purpose was to call out one of the underlying themes of misogyny throughout the book. 

The story does remind me why I love a good mystery though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Child abuse

Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Death, and Stalking

sarah_speaks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, Body horror, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, Stalking, Pedophilia, Gore, Blood, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Sexual content

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Alcoholism

tillyarvabelle's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Torture, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Child death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Rape, Trafficking, Stalking, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

deezy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, and Violence

ktdakotareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Incest, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

Minor: Stalking

thegr8estangell's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

It’s a pretty good mystery novel. Hunting a serial killer who leaves a creepy AF calling card. I liked the book, but I would have probably liked it more if I understood more about the European style of policing. Some of that didn’t make sense to me. Also, I’m not sure if the author just hated minorities or if that’s just how people from denmark talk about Muslims who live there? Seems a little racist to me. Overall a fairly gripping story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Torture, Stalking, Murder, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Islamophobia, Kidnapping, and Racism

kaidoz's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The main plot of the book surrounds a serial killer, and I find the idea of it very interesting. The murders and the way the plot thickens isn’t too slow. The main characters are pretty cliche. The main woman is a headstrong/independent type and the main man is a carbon copy of the rugged detective with a mysterious past who was kicked off the force. The story itself made it readable but because of the characters’ cliche-ness I wasn’t too much of a fan of the <slight romance toward the end>. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Murder, Kidnapping, Gore, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Stalking, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Medical content

This book contains mentions of graphic child abuse, physical and sexual. Many people are murdered and it is mentioned in detail due to the main characters being detectives.

corinnab's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

5 stars! What a fantastic intricately woven thriller!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is by the same author who wrote the novel that was turned into the amazing TV series, "The Killing", which was picked up by Netflix mid-way through. This book was graphic, dark, and gritty (similar to Pretty Girls but a very different storyline). It is long but it is worth it. I read it slow and the pages took awhile to get through (not sure if it was that they were big pages or something to do with the translation). This is not your typical thriller, but moreso a cinematic slow build. There are so many key players and you never really know who is responsible for what until the end. Although there are so many characters, I did not find myself confused. The characters are flawed, but real, and there are so many sick people in this story, but they all have a story. I loved this so much!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Addiction, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Sexual assault