torture

1960’s noir, an art heist, dark family secrets, vintage cars, and loads of sex

Tenebroso by thesehands

October 26, 2024 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

Tenebroso by thesehands Ronan was a portent, an omen, a sign that Adam might be in real danger; Declan had sent the most dangerous person he knew to protect him. ― thesehands, Tenebroso As he lay in Adam’s arms, Ronan noted the differences between what he remembered and what he currently felt. Adam was not as bony as he used to be, no longer elongated with the awkward stretch of adolescence. He was warmer than Ronan’s memories, perhaps only because he was real and tangible […]

This was disappointing

The Witches of Vardø by Anya Bergman

July 25, 2024 by Malin Leave a Comment

In 1662, a former mistress of the king of Denmark-Norway (Norway was a Danish colony for about 400 years, for those not big into their history trivia), Anna Rhodius is sent into exile to a fortress in Vardø in the very north of Norway. She convinces herself that she has been sent there to help root out witchcraft, and if she does a good job, she will be welcomed back by the king with open arms. Zigri is the young widow of a fisherman, who […]

All for the Game: Obsession and its Russian fanbase

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic

The Raven King by Nora Sakavic

The King's Men by Nora Sakavic

December 3, 2023 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

It’s hard to kill a man when everyone’s eyes are on him. Make them love you, make them hate you. I don’t care. Just make them look at you. ― Nora Sakavic, The King’s Men “The court doesn’t care what my name is or where I’m from or where I’ll be tomorrow. It lets me exist as I am.” ― Nora Sakavic, The King’s Men “Everything I needed, you already gave me. You let me stay.” ― Nora Sakavic, The King’s Men The name of […]

An ugly, ugly book

August 14, 2017 by Lindzgrl 4 Comments

I’ll open this review by saying I have a very low tolerance for books or movies that feature torture. I just don’t want those images in my head. I don’t want to think about the fact that human beings do such depraved and terrible things to other human beings. I don’t want to think about the fact that people’s last hours have been filled with pain and horror initiated by the whims of another person. I don’t even want to think about how an author […]

A Kafkaesque Nightmare

January 20, 2016 by expandingbookshelf 1 Comment

“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”– George Orwell, 1984 Ben Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” It’s a sentiment this country has been at odds with since its inception, from the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, […]

Gothic crime and Victorian intrigue

July 28, 2014 by Valyruh Leave a Comment

A Victorian novel in the form of an epistolary, this is the supposed journal of 17-year-old Richard Shenstone, who has just been sent home, or “rusticated,” from Cambridge because of misdeeds that are only slowly revealed in the course of the novel. Richard has recently learned that his father, once a respected deacon of the church, has died of a heart attack while under suspicion of embezzlement of church funds–and worse–and that his mother and older sister are living in dire circumstances in a delapidated […]

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