Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins

9 reviews

anne_reader's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Vomit, Violence, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Abandonment, Cursing, Cancer, Medical content, Death of parent, Grief, Drug use, Terminal illness, Sexism, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Death, and Classism

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I liked this story and really any one where the girlies fight back. I liked how the story all came together, and I was really interested in the fictional island. Lux is a wild name for a character, though haha

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Bullying, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug use, Abandonment, Alcohol, Murder, Sexual content, Death of parent, Blood, Grief, and Death

Minor: Car accident, Classism, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, and Emotional abuse

kimveach's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A quick-paced thriller with a couple of surprises.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Death, Infidelity, Cannibalism, Sexism, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Blood, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders

justreads93's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Couldn’t put it down! Every twist and turn has me eager to know more and figure out how it was going to end!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Gun violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Drug use and Terminal illness

oflifeandstuff's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Kind of disappointing.. there was a lot of repetition and stuff that didn’t really make sense. I also thought it was a shame that there wasn’t a single character I wanted to root for. Robby was unnecessary and the island didn’t feel creepy until the last couple of chapters because the flashbacks were kind of random

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Car accident and Terminal illness

beckyremillard's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Lux is looking for adventure with her boyfriend, Nico. They meet two girls, Amma and Brittany, who want to charter Nico’s boat to explore an island a few days from Hawaii. Another couple with a larger boat arrive shortly after them and they all hang out. Drama ensues after a few days and things start to take a darker turn. 

75-80% of the book was slow and uneventful. Nothing really happened until the last bit of the book. It was interesting enough but I was trying to power through more than I was enjoying the story. 

I wasn’t expecting Eliza to be Chloe. But since Chloe was introduced so late it was obvious she was going to play a role on the island. 

Also, I didn’t love the ending where everyone just gets murdered. There are “reasons” that they decided to murder, but they were flimsy and just meh to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Gun violence, Murder, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Infidelity

Minor: Cannibalism

michellemaas's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

* Beware of minor spoilers

2.5 - ⭐⭐💫

Standalone Adult Thriller with island vibes, dual timelines, and multiple point-of-views. Also deals strongly with themes of privilege and loss.

It was a great study on human nature, but marketing it as a thriller is a bit of a stretch.

"Dreams were for people who had choices, opportunities. I didn’t believe I had any of those things."

Lux and her boyfriend, who are in dire need of some money, offer to accompany 2 college girls to a deserted island for a thrilling adventure. While things are nice, even relaxing at first, the discovery of a dead body causes them all to question whom they can trust.

"The truth is, when your world is falling apart, you stop having 'a thing.' You get so focused on just making it through each day that 'interests' or 'ambitions' kind of go out the window. You definitely don’t have time for passions."

First and foremost, I think marketing this as a "thriller" is a bit of a stretch. There were legit maybe 4 thrilling scenes in total, and even that's me being a bit generous. Now this was my first thriller so maybe I'll come to learn that that's just how it is, but I don't think so. This felt a lot more like a contemporary or speculative fiction book with a heavy emphasis on sociology.

The whole point of the book was to explore people. How they interacted, the things they did to be accepted by others, how loss affected them but also how isolation affected them. Being on a deserted island with no connection to the modern world gave everyone the freedom they needed to justify their baser human instincts. The jealousy, the possessiveness, the sexual urges, everything was dramatically heightened because there were no other people to subconsciously keep them in line with the threat of not fitting in and being accepted. It was a great study of human nature and I really enjoyed it but thrilling, it was not.

All that being said, I still think Hawkins is an amazing author. She has this way of using stylistic devices (which is not something I ever notice) to enhance the story and make the characters super realistic. Things such as her narrating past events in the third person as opposed to the first person of current events to create distance between the people our main characters were and currently are, for example. She also delivers a very slow and mundane start to the book so we can see how fast things escalate in the end. It was all just really well done.

"What am I when you strip everything else away? I’m a motherf*cking survivor." 

Overall, I unexpectedly really enjoyed reading this book, especially the social commentary Hawkins made, but I wish there were more heart-pounding scenes and a bit more of a plot since things only really started happening at 65% in. The ending was pretty mind-blowing and expertly done though. Would recommend it if you are in the mood for a book that is slightly thrilling and has a cast of amazing characters.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Cannibalism, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Car accident, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal death and Chronic illness

ekmook's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Cancer, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, Murder, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Car accident

alexisgarcia's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Overall, this was a fun change of pace from my usual genres. However, there were a few problems for me.

First, it’s definitely “R-rated”. There’s cursing, death (not a spoiler, mentioned on the inner cover), etc. that may bother some so keep that in mind.
Second, I wish there was more character development. Some of the characters seem a little one dimensional due to the lack of development and exploration. 
Third, I did also feel like there were some issues toward the end. Some of the end character plots left me a little disappointed and confused. A lot of it seemed rushed and almost forced. 

Aside from those issues, the book was a pretty fun and heart racing change. The descriptions of the island are beautiful and the tangled relationships and characters were so fun to “figure out”. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a thriller about a deserted island or someone who wants to pretend it’s not winter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Cannibalism, Car accident, Chronic illness, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence