Reviews with content warning for Blood - Don't Believe It

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Don't Believe It by Charlie Donlea

22 reviews

jve's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark mysterious tense

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

A quick, easy mystery/thriller read. It was fast-paced and had enough intrigue to keep it a page-turner, but I had already suspected the final twist before it happened.

Content Warnings

melshoo's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

jhasfurther's review against another edition

4.5

mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The ending is good but not very satisfying.

Content Warnings

ecurtin222's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

Dude, wtf

Content Warnings

cassidy_rain's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“To kill someone required perfection, timing, and luck. I hoped all three were with me this evening.”

This is the second book I’ve read by this author and certainly won’t be my last. This is the perfect read for true crime and crime documentary lovers.

Don’t Believe It follows Sidney; she’s a documentary maker who has a knack for making documentaries on the wrongfully accused and imprisoned. Her newest documentary is showcasing Grace, who may or may not have been wrongfully convicted of killing her boyfriend on a vacation ten years prior. Sidney is her last chance at an acquittal.

Since Sidney makes documentaries, it switches back and forth between the actual storyline and the “documentary” that she’s developing as the story moves along. It took me a minute to get used to this writing style, but once I did I flew through this. I really liked that the story follows the documentary timeline. It’s very cool to find out info at the same time as the investigator (and world watching the documentary essentially).

A few things felt maybe a little far fetched or left me with questions, but overall I was pretty satisfied how it all tied together. I kept switching who I thought the actual murderer was chapter by chapter, but was still left baffled and surprised. Little clues are left throughout the story to steer your mind in all directions, along with enough clues that makes the final reveal make sense and feel satisfying. I’m by no means an expert in crime scenes or autopsies, but the way he writes these scenes are super fleshed out and realistic feeling. It really did feel like watching an episode of dateline. The ending felt a little abrupt, but overall I liked it.

Would highly recommend picking this up!

Content Warnings

patientlysarah's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

seagullsaga's review against another edition

3.25

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Slow to warm up and quite an abrupt ending. Maybe It’s just been a while since I’ve read this genre, but this book didn’t click with me until about two thirds of the way through. The whole thing is wrapped up by a quick series of twists that feels a little sudden but not out of place. When it lands though, it’s great.

Content Warnings