Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Where You End by Abbott Kahler

4 reviews

luverbyrd's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bookeduntil's review against another edition

Go to review page

DNF’d at 60%.

When Kat wakes from a two week coma and only remembers the face of the woman standing in the room with her—her twin sister Jude—it is suddenly up to Jude to help rebuild Kat’s knowledge of their lives up to that point. But is she being strictly honest with Kat, and if not, what truths are she trying to hide?

Told in two separate timelines and shifting between Jude and Kat, Where You End was an interesting story, for what I got through, but the number of triggers in this book was insane, so I needed to take a biiiiig step back from it for my own mental health. I highly advise going into this book with the knowledge that these triggers are present, and I hope that the published version of the text lists these in some ways to alert readers.

CONTENT WARNINGS:
Cult activity/behavior, abandonment, sexual abuse, sexual abuse of minors, violence, MLM activity, suicide, blood, manipulation of minors, mention of car accident, mental illness, pedophilia, incest/inappropriate acts of related adult to minor, gaslighting, child abuse, emotional abuse, injury and injury detail, medical trauma, grief, mentioned death of a parent.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

curiouser_books's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What I loved: First, I was SO drawn to the cover. Seriously. I have a thing for creepy rabbits now I guess. Second, this was thrilling from the first page. There was no time to get into the story, I was in it from the first second. There were all these moments when I was like "oh, this is what's happening" only to have another twist that kept me guessing.

What I didn't love: so I clearly need more experience with this genre, but I feel like the ending isn't the best part. Getting there is the best part, but the ending isn't that awesome. Like it was, but the possibilities were almost better than what happened. I feel like this every time I read a thriller, it isn't just this one. It's like when the mysteries of the island on Lost were finally revealed it maybe wasn't as good as all the theories. Maybe it's a sign of a good author to provide so many possibilities. Maybe it's a sign I need more experience with the genre.

Who I'm recommending this to: I hesitate to recommend books in genres I'm inexperienced with, but I loved this, I think other people will too.





Expand filter menu Content Warnings

chaos_carrie's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

As far as thrillers go, this one was much more suspenseful than it was thrilling. Also, it absolutely should come with trigger warnings for pedophilia, emotional and physical child abuse, and murder and more…

The audiobook narration was fine but the actual writing was very slow, with the Kat essentially stumbling around in the dark to understand her life until the last 25% or so. The thread of the twins only difference being Jude’s queerness felt heavy handed at best. 

Once things picked up, the writing got a bit better, but overall I found this to have too many threads to follow, while also somehow being a bit boring until shortly before the end.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...