Reviews tagging 'Blood'

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

95 reviews

sammy357's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

I've never read dark academia before and I really only started the book because I thought the premise was interesting and wanted to read more sapphic books, so maybe I wasn't the intended audience.
I thought their would be magic, witches, and ghosts in the book and that's what I was most excited for. That and the mystery of the Dalloway Five.

But unfortunately there wasn't actually any magic involved.

I wasn't really invested in the romance or the characters. Honestly from the beginning Ellis gave off bad vibes. When I read that she was a "method writer" I knew she would be a walking red flag. I mean have you ever heard of a method actor that didn't take it too far? 
Overall the book was okay. I liked the beginning because of the hints of magic and a haunting, wasn't really invested in the rest of the book, and liked the last couple chapters

with the murder and Felicity trying not to get framed.

 
Wouldn't read again but I don't feel like I wasted my time reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Child abuse

Manipulation, substance abuse (alcohol mostly), suicide references (no actual abuse) reference to racist history at a PWI

ursa_arlo's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol and Racism

seren's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Gun violence, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, and Grief

sleepysapph_'s review

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Blood, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Gaslighting, Animal death, Violence, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Minor: Racism

blackheart's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Drug use, Gore, Blood, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Dysphoria, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Bullying, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Classism, Cursing, Vomit, Death, Animal death, and Toxic relationship

ambaright's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Animal cruelty, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death

solarel's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

At some points in this book I thought I was able to predict what would come next but I was always proven wrong. It kept me in a state of shock at every step with plot twists and reveals. 

With the subject of high school girls, it makes sense that it read like a YA. At some points it felt like it was almost pretentiously trying to be adult, but that’s also on theme. The prose felt like it was trying too hard at times to be dark and edgy, but overall the vibes were very spooky academic. 

Definitely a page turner. I enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Gun violence, Violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Grief, Murder, Outing, Blood, Chronic illness, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Animal cruelty, Child death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Body horror, Animal death, Blood, Grief, and Murder

cosmo_naut's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

3.5

First off: I am not a big mystery/thriller reader. It's not really my thing, so this will colour my preception of the book.
I read this book in one night, in the midst of exam season, because I just had to know that I was right with my predictions and guesses. I liked it in general and I had a good time reading it.
I don't think the prose will be to everyone's taste. It's supposed to be dark academia, so the book is littered with literary references that occasionally are rewarding to understand, but often seem very piled on. I did appreciate some of the meta-level a few of those discussions had. The plot was quite predictable (even for a newbie like me) and I could guess the plot twist pretty early on. I didn't really mind the tropy-ness of the book but I've seen some other reviewers complain about it. The ending seemed really rushed which was a bit disappointing because the build up of the tension was really good. I would have loved to spend more time on the aftermath of everything that happened. Instead, it feels like it was brushed off. The main character is 18 and this book being a mystery and Young Adult, I didn't mind her making a couple of stupid decisions - and in the grand scheme of things her decisions did make sense. The side characters sadly fell a bit flat. If the book had been 50, or even 100, pages longer, I think there would be the space to flesh out these characters as well as the ending more.
Whatever the technical issues with the book may be: I had a good time reading it. I would definitely recommend checking the content warnings before reading it - there's some pretty heavy things in here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Murder

rorykluciarova's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Blood, Death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content