Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks

10 reviews

maddie_0930's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Body horror, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, Child death, Violence, Animal death, Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Child abuse, Cancer, Blood, Death, Murder, Medical trauma, Cannibalism, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Animal cruelty, Suicide, Self harm, Mental illness, Excrement, Death of parent, and Confinement

aubreymichelle's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

This is the second time I've read this book, and I am so attached to Linus' and Jenny's relationship, as while as his relationship with Russell. The ending (do not take a sneak peak at the end when you start the book) always makes me cry, which the fact I still cried the second time surprised me. This book has to be my favorite book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, and Kidnapping

Minor: Grief, Cancer, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Drug use

februaries's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

?;:!?;!/! what did i Just read. this is so insanely psychological and im having trouble even putting my thoughts together about this book because ????? it’s genius and sickening and i have no doubt that some people have actually gone through this and are just as clueless as i was reading this. would have loved more depth on the characters but this was somewhat realistic already. this book was such an experience and i think it’ll never leave my mind. im in shock

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Blood, Drug abuse, Suicide, and Drug use

chloelj27's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Terminal illness, and Cancer

Moderate: Violence, Kidnapping, and Child death

Minor: Addiction

julievandemoere's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Alcohol, Death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Self harm, Terminal illness, and Cancer

Minor: Cannibalism

travelseatsreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

I'd seen The Bunker Diary on aruralreader's stories and immediately once I saw it was in first person diary format I jumped on it. Ever since picking up Adrian Mole when I was young I just can't let a book in diary format pass me.

The Bunker Diary tells the story of how 16 year old Linus is drugged, kidnapped and dumped in what appears to be an empty bunker. Throughout the story we get to see so many sides of the human personality, psychology and the struggles that are experienced within the bunker.

This book is very very dark and is full of hopelessness and violence (both to people and animals) but I could not stop listening.

There are so many interesting themes woven within the story from the obvious exploration of humanity to the subtle religious hinting throughout. Also, quite cleverly, a lot is left unsaid and unanswered so is up to your interpretation at the end. Who is the man upstairs, what happened to him? Why Linus, why this series of events?

I listened to the audiobook and while it worked perfectly I think I also would have enjoyed seeing the full diary format.

A really interesting read that left me with so many questions. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Cancer, and Terminal illness

mushio's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Not a lot of questions get answered, and the ending is one of the most harrowing (but creative) I've seen. It goes from ok, to bad, to horrendous quickly towards the end. 
Never getting answers makes it frustrating, but the frustration is what helps deliver the impact at the end. 

You will feel absolutely empty after this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicide

Moderate: Child death and Death

astrocate's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide

dean_issov's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.0

Pain. That's what this book is; it's just horrible and sad and every page feels like you're falling further down an abyss devoid of happiness. 4/5. 

The Bunker Diary is a story about 6 people who got kidnapped and trapped inside a bunker and they have no idea who is behind all of it and why. It's in the style of a diary, obviously, written by our main character, Linus, a 16 year old boy who's just completely lost in life. The first half of the book was pretty okay, it was really intriguing and the further the story went on, the more I got curious about all the characters. Then the latter half kicked in and it just really nailed it, I was reading it like my life depended on it. I don't want to spoil anything but there is this particular character that I sympathized with so much and it just hurts to read near the end. 

This book's premise is somewhat similar to the Netflix film "The Platform" and also a little bit like the series "Squid Game", it's just a short and quick story but the way it's presented is really effective and it hits you in all the right (or wrong) places. Definitely a highly recommended book, just bring some tissues while you're at it, no biggie. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, and Drug use

anticapitalist_2000's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Terminal illness and Drug use