Reviews tagging 'Violence'

A Neon Darkness by Lauren Shippen

9 reviews

theheartisanaro's review against another edition

challenging dark sad

3.0

This entire book screams "it's Damien's world and we're all just living in it". It was hard to get through and mostly unpleasant to read but I did find myself understanding Damien to some extent and feeling sympathetic towards him. The one thing I didn't like was the occasional switch between perspectives which felt choppy and didn't really add much to the overall plot. I also generally think Lauren Shippen is better at writing podcasts than books, but I'd still recommend this to anyone who likes The Bright Sessions or enjoys reading about an emo teen with no character development.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Vomit, Alcoholism, and Violence

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, War, Confinement, Drug abuse, and Suicide attempt

stardustandrockets's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The Bright Sessions has been one of my favorite podcasts for years. When these companion novels were announced I was beyond excited—especially A Neon Darkness because it's the origin story of my favorite character, Damien.

This book was everything I wanted. Insight into why Damien is the way he is, how he got the name Damien, and just how broken of a human he is. Struggling to control his power of persuasion, he doesn’t always know what’s real when it comes to other people. Do they genuinely like him or do they only like him because he wants them to like him? This book focuses on the present while giving little glimpses of the past and what led Robert (Damien) to LA in the first place, the loss of Them. There are also little snippets from the perspective of the other characters prevalent to the story that help push the story along. I don’t always like little interjections like that, but I think the author used them sparingly and in a way that helped the overall story instead of taking away. Because of what Damien can do and what was going on it was nice to have a little peek into the other character’s minds at times. This was especially true knowing that the book doesn’t start out from Damien’s POV (which was a little confusing at first, but was soon cleared up as to why this was the case).

While the whole story isn’t happy (much of what we know about Damien from the podcast isn’t happy, so I don’t know why I expected this story to be happy), it definitely explains a lot about everyone’s favorite (or not so favorite) villain from The Bright Sessions. It breaks my heart knowing what he's gone through and how he can't really trust anyone or himself because of what he can do. Overall I am extremely happy knowing more about Damien and what led him to the events of the podcast. It’s an origin story more than anything and I hope you’ll pick it up. You don’t have to know anything about the podcast to enjoy it, but you’ll definitely get a lot more out of the story if you do. This is another excellent book by Lauren Shippen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, and Self harm

beccaand's review

dark tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

Such a fascinating look into Damien's backstory. Villain origin story? You love to see it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

lumberelk's review

dark tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, and Addiction

Minor: Vomit, Islamophobia, and Xenophobia

xoodlebooks's review

dark emotional reflective tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Drug use and Drug abuse

Minor: Islamophobia, Addiction, Xenophobia, Stalking, Sexism, and Racism

heebeegbs's review

adventurous challenging sad fast-paced

• 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

Adored this book because it a challenging insight into an incredibly complicated character. The ending felt So right! The only thing I could have asked for was more action !

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Kidnapping

Minor: Suicide attempt

piscero's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Violence, Mental illness, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Physical abuse and Suicide attempt

toopunkrockforshul's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Enjoyed this book, though I found it difficult to read all at once knowing how Damien turns out in the Bright Sessions podcast. I thought the metaphors and symbolism were really great and it gave me a whole lot of context and angst for the way the characters in the podcasts are, and made me want to relisten to the pods. Much different vibes to an infinite noise!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Confinement, and Violence

Minor: Vomit

Strong themes of manipulation and people trying to justify/excuse abusive behavior

levilore_'s review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A Neon Darkness was an incredible book. The importance of these events to the Damien in TBS was incredible to see unfold and im left with my mouth open and my eyes teary from that ending. I would absolutely recommend this book, even if you have no knowledge of the Atypical world bc the story was just incredible and so impactful. I loved every character and every character had meaning to the story. I can't say enough how much I loved this book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, and Addiction

Minor: Suicide, Vomit, and Sexism