Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf

61 reviews

dogearedbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Child death, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Stalking, Gun violence, Rape, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Alcohol

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this. I liked that it was duel timelines because I find it easy to get engaged because you want to know what going on in the time lines. I did think this was going to be like an isolated thriller and it was to an extent, but not as much as I hoped. I also liked the true crime aspect to this because I honestly had no clue what this was about so that was a fun surprise. That being said I did guess everything because I thought it was obvious, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gore, Alcoholism, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Abortion, Car accident, Confinement, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual violence

j_squaredd's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

2.5

This is just a run of the mill, predictable thriller with so-so writing. I figured out the bulk of the twist about a quarter in and the other part of the twist was based on things the author didn’t really give you a way to know.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Child death, Physical abuse, and Death

Moderate: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

shereadsmysteries's review against another edition

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? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Child death, Violence, Blood, Miscarriage, Murder, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit, Cursing, Death of parent, and Rape

Minor: Pedophilia

aylexareads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault

matthewsalibi's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

1.0

Really hated it.  The contortions the author has to go through to make the twists work spoiled the story for me, because nothing really makes sense.  I saw most of the twists a mile off and could not have cared less about the final whodunit. The main character is a brat who argues with people who DEFINITELY know better than she does about their own safety.  The brutal stuff is a little too brutal for my liking without enough payoff.  The final confrontation takes way too long.

Also, not a huge spoiler to say, the abducted-woman-held-prisoner trope is one of my least favorite of all the hacky thriller tropes, and I think I am just going to have to implement a rule where I refuse to read any more of them unless it seems like the author might subvert the trope in an interesting way, because otherwise they only ever annoy me!

The thing that structurally did not work at all about this book is we're supposed to believe Wylie is a true crime writer, but we never see her think or talk about the crime itself or the house she's living in, which really should be driving the suspense of the book -- so right away, that was a big clue that she's one of the folks from the other stories, because why else would the Gudenkauf not leverage the very intriguing and creepy setup of a true crime writer isolated by a storm in the house where her most recent subjects died to ratchet up the tension? But she's boxed herself in because all Wylie's memories of the crime are personal, so we can't really know her thoughts about it without spoiling the reveal.  

Some of the plot holes that annoyed me: you're telling me this crime happened to Wylie and she just finished writing a book about it, and not only is there NO doubt in her mind about who committed the crime (the evidence is pretty inconclusive), it also NEVER occurs to her that the mysterious stranger who shows up on the doorstep of the crime scene and is the right age as the missing person might be related to the case, and FURTHER she does not recognize her childhood best friend who she just wrote a book about, even though she DOES immediately recognize the person she thought was their assailant?  I mean.... what a terrible, terrible book, and I am mad at it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Kidnapping, and Murder

alliallialli's review against another edition

dark 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

4.75

Did I just finish this audiobook in one day? Hell yes I did. I don’t always enjoy books that flash between multiple timelines/perspectives but it really worked here. It was very fun to put all the pieces together as the storylines all came together.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Rape, Miscarriage, and Sexual assault

Minor: Gore

heartinateapot's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

soobooksalot's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.0

Snowy days call for snowy reads!
 The Overnight Guest is told in three alternating storylines, in two timelines. 
 Wylie Lark is a true crime author, renting a remote farm house in which to complete her latest book.
 A snowstorm sweeps through the area and she happens upon a small child frozen outside her door. 
 Meanwhile we are told the events leading up to and including the town's grisly murder that Wylie is depicting in her book.
 The storylines converge and there are plenty of twists for thriller readers to be surprised by. The characters could have been fleshed out a bit more IMHO, but overall a most satisfying suspense read.
 This is my first novel by Heather Gudenkauf and I'll be doing some digging into her backlist!
 Recommended!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Miscarriage

ohhthehorrors's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Pedophilia, Blood, Death, Grief, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Fire/Fire injury