Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - The Chestnut Man

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup

30 reviews

ehunsy's review

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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victoriakuo13's review against another edition

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dark 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

4.0

***CHECK TWs!!!***

I would agree with a lot of the other reviews saying this book was slow to start. The varying POVs are interesting once you get a hold of the characters. Before that, it’s like a swamp in your brain where you’re constantly trying to think back and remember whose life you’re reading about.

While most other thrillers I’ve read have been undeniably fast paced, this is the first one I’ve felt has been a slow burn. I’m not sure how I liked it— it was definitely a fridge at times, but I do feel like it made the payoff that much better. I liked feeling like the puzzle pieces were slowly coming together in my head.

I really enjoyed the partnership between Thulin and Hess even though I wish they actually worked together more. I thought they had good chemistry and would love to read another mystery with them in it. There’s so much room for relationship development there and I’m sad it has to end here.

I’m usually absolutely awful at guessing who the murderer is, so I’m kinda shocked that I actually did guess this one. This person was my main suspect from the beginning, and again, I SUCK at piecing these things together so if you’re the type of person who wants to be surprised, you may not be in this case? Or it’s possible I just had very good luck this time around.

There are also a few questions that I still have that I don’t feel were answered in the book but the way the chapters are structured so that something is revealed and then the author explains it fully many chapters later may be the reason why. I may have just missed it.

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essie__reads's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? No

5.0

This book kept me hooked from the beginning. I tend not to enjoy thrillers because I often find them too predictable, but that was not the case with this book. I genuinely had no idea who the killer was or what their motive was, until it was revealed in the book. This book is over 500 pages but the chapters are short and fly by. There were several different characters introduced in the beginning which made the beginning a bit slow but they are easy to differentiate between and the rest of the book flowed very seamlessly. If you enjoy detective/police thrillers, I would highly recommend this one. I felt like the ending was left open enough for the possibility of a sequel, while still wrapping up the main plot very well. I am looking forward to watching the Netflix series adaptation!!

Please be advised to look up content warnings!!!!!!

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michelles_book_nook's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

5.0

⚠️ TW: murder, torture, animal death, sexual assault, rape, child abuse, paedophilia, domestic violence, abduction ⚠️ Wow this is such an intense and addicting crime thriller! This book follows the Danish police as they begin discovering brutally murdered women alongside Chestnut Man dolls and as Naia Thulin and Mark Hess become partners on this high profile case they find a mysterious piece of evidence that sends all of their theories reeling as it links to the disappearance of a young girl a year prior who was never found and presumed dead with the killer being behind bars and the case long since closed. And now with a suspected serial killer waiting to strike again they are racing against the clock to figure out all the pieces to this complex and harrowing case. This book left my brain like mush for all the right reasons! It is such an heart pounding page turner filled with twists that will send your mind racing to connect the dots. Admittedly I found it a bit slow to begin with before it really hooked my attention but from that point on I could not put it down or stop thinking about who the killer could be (and trust me I considered all possibilities, or at least who I thought were possibilities) and when it was finally revealed I was speechless. One of my favourite things was how the book was finished so well by explaining the beginning of the book and tied off a couple loose ends perfectly. Overall, I highly recommend this book and I will definitely be on the look out for more books from this author.

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