Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Girls Are Never Gone

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh

5 reviews

thereadedit's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.75
Unsettling: 😬😬
SCARY: 👻👻
DEATH: 💀💀💀
INTRIGUE: 🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠

TW: Drowning, Death, Gore

Sapphic Romance Meets The House on Haunted Hill on a Lake

The girls are never gone was definitely a journey through time and circumstances much different than our own. It explored the 1800s all the way through today. With time comes people and conflict. And people choose conflict over resolving what issues may lie.

We all know that teenage girls can have a mind of their own. It's a time when you feel as if you may never come across a time and space where you aren't safe or could fathom the worst happening to you. But also exploring who you are to find you and what makes you feel happy. Until you are thrust into such a situation, you have no way of knowing unless you follow the history of people before us.

I'm this instance there is a beautiful home that is being restored to become a museum to show how much of a time capsule it is. You have a very wealthy family with 10 kids who lived there and while there were many there was one who perished. She built the strength and power over the years and chose to take a girl her age each time one moved into the home. The town refused to do anything about it so they just pretended it didn't happen. Until it made it impossible for the girls coming there to have a dream summer of working in the house. Three girls are there to be in an internship to help restore the home into a museum. All three go through this time to find who they are in life. A sapphic romance between two of the girls begins just when things start happening in the home.

Vengeful spirits always wants the last say in everything yet they can't even speak. The girls in this book go through so much and yet are stronger for everything in the end.

I would highly recommend reading this book if you want to go on a ghost filled haunted house tour!

Content Warnings

shelvesofivy's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

I'm not generally a horror fan, but I couldn't pass up a sapphic mystery with a diabetic mc. Also, her service dog is the true star of the whole book ♡

The dog does Not die!!

Even though the romance wasn't the most profound or anything, there were definitely tender moments that had my heart in a chokehold. More than the romance though, the mystery aspect is what got me through the book. I'd probably reread, if only to catch more specific clues.
This wasn't a perfect book, with some underdeveloped areas, but it was still a fun and interesting read! I have mixed feelings about the ending, because

there were unanswered questions about Holly's fate, and I don't really like vague endings. However, I do appreciate Dare and Quinn's maturity to give themselves time to recover from the events of the book before going into a full relationship with each other. I'd love to see them reunite eventually and tie up some loose ends though.

With those things said, I could definitely see there being a sequel, and would love to read it if that happens!

Content Warnings

beholderess's review

Go to review page

mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

monicalaurette's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

“Leave, Dare. She won’t save you either.”

This book is not one of my normal ones in a few ways. Yes, it’s YA & gay, but it’s also paranormal and ghost hunting, the first book of it’s kind to land on my ‘read’ shelf in my room. Besides it being YA & Gay (that’s a fun rhyme), I got this book because of the author. I love Sarah’s work so much that I knew that I had to try this one out. This book is even inspired by her ancestral home with it’s own haunting history (and an episode on Ghost Hunters!).

“I’ll reach out into the darkness, safe in knowing nothing ever reaches back.”

The Girls Are Never Gone follows Dare, a young teen with Type 1 Diabetes and a passion for uncovering the truth around ‘hauntings’. She doesn’t believe in ghosts and a month-long trip to a famously haunted house in Virginia is just another haunt, and a chance to show her own skills away from her past YouTube show. However, while at the famous Arrington estate, researching the death of one of it’s past residents, things start to change the way Dare has always thought the world around her to be.

I loved the different aspects of this book so much. The Type 1 rep was nice to see, it was something that was weaved in through the whole book and not just something mentioned at the beginning and forgotten about (like some other books, shows, and movies do with stuff like that). My family history falls more on Type 2, but I always grew up knowing about both and it was nice to see that as something that never hindered Dare, but instead helped her to remember that she was always strong. “Type 1 diabetics are like Girl Scouts….”

Then there’s the Bisexual rep that I obviously loved. While Dare being Bi wasn’t like a main plot point, it was nice to have it there. She was mainly exploring & navigating those feelings during this book after a recent break-up from her ex-boyfriend. And it was nice to have the different texts from Dare’s friends who just didn’t care that Dare was bi, just letting her know that they still cared about her and how much they loved her podcast so far.

Moments in this book, some of the twists and reveals I found myself figuring out along with the characters

like when they found out Hettie was killing her ‘sisters’ at the same age, I had picked up on that when they found Atheleen’s list and read the next chapter I felt so smart

. But then there were other moments that I just did NOT see coming at all. However, that made for the book to be enjoyable so I wasn’t guessing everything happening before it did; Sarah and the Arrington Estate kept me on my toes.

With all that said, I give The Girls Are Never Gone 5 stars. I wish there was more that I could learn about it all or even hear the podcast that Dare created while in the house. Either way, I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good ghost story and unsuspecting twists.

I knew the second that Holly fell into the lake that it was going to want her, and then Quinn with the sleepwalking I was so torn on how it was going to end.

Atheleen being like a fellow ghost hunter/true crime lover was really cool and I think a way to help Dare realize that some ghosts are in fact real

ROSE AS GUSSIE I JUST DID NOT SEE COMING I AUDIBLY GASPED

I thought that at the end, Hettie/the lake did accept Rose both because she gave her ‘sister’ a hug and Rose was probably the same age as Hettie’s mom when she died so it was like her mother was healing her.

Okay but WHERE IS HOLLY? Part of me is like, oh she never left the estate and is now just hiding in the dilapidated building waiting for someone to find her/allow her to drown them in the lake next. I know that is crazy but she left the story so oddly and abruptly I just want her to be okay.

Content Warnings

anniereads221's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

More...