Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

9 reviews

moonylovesstars's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.5

Honestly had me on edge the whole time. And for the first time I actually felt nervous when turning off the light at night. It captured me and I think it represented trauma pretty well. But some parts just didn’t peak my interest as much. But it was a good read over all.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Sexual assault, Violence, Mental illness, Cursing, Death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Gore

pibblemama97's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, War, Antisemitism, Blood, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Genocide

vanessa1982's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Kidnapping

Minor: Rape

cassielaj's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I liked this. I love a ghost story that also exposes the horrors that exist among the living. The concept of Mary showing everyone their fears and horrors was very creepy and compelling, the back and forth between Fiona and the Idlewild girls kept me on my toes, and both of the mysteries had enough twists that I wasn’t always a step ahead. This book has a lot of emotion in it as well, which always improves a mystery in my opinion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, and Grief

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Mental illness, Antisemitism, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Rape, War, and Violence

This book discusses the Holocaust and Nazi prison camps.

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

The Broken Girls is a historical fiction that goes back and forth between a boarding school for troubled girls in Vermont 1950 and the same town in Vermont 2014, following a journalist whose sister was murdered and dumped at the school. It's a murder mystery, it's a paranormal story, but above all, it's a story about sisterhood both biological and found.

There is so much to like about this book. First and foremost, the students at the boarding school were excellent, by far my favorite characters, Katie and Sonia especially. There were moments between them that were just so genuine and beautiful that it broke my heart. I thought the paranormal element of the story was very spooky and I loved the historical details that were there throughout. The 1950 chapters were my favorite because I loved the gothic boarding school setting and the haunting that came with it.

On to some negatives: The first 50 or so pages were a little slow and it made it hard for me to concentrate. I feel like this book would have benefitted greatly from some first person narration. I didn't like how detached the third person made me feel at times. I think that seeing at least one of the girl's from the first person perspective would have made a difference. I also thought the relationship part of the plot with Fiona and her boyfriend was annoying and took me out of the experience whenever it was being focused on. Additionally, during Fiona's investigations, a lot of things seemed to come to her very quickly and conveniently, which more than once made me, out loud, go "really?" It just seemed like she should've had to work a little harder for information that seemingly fell into her lap.

Overall, because of how much the characters overall meant to me, I gave this a 3.5. It was a perfect spooky wintry book for December!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Death of parent, Blood, Genocide, Antisemitism, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Stalking, Kidnapping, and Hate crime

Moderate: Gaslighting, War, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Pregnancy

Minor: Fatphobia, Ableism, Excrement, Drug use, Addiction, Miscarriage, and Sexual content

saltycoffee's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Police brutality

Moderate: Child death, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Violence, and War

libraryghost's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Murder, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Addiction

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Rape, and Drug use

julesmae's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

An enjoyable,  atmospheric, and aptly spooky mystery. Nothing very special, but well-written nonetheless. There were a few slight historical inaccuracies that probably wouldn't matter to anyone besides me as someone who studies that field (won't say what as it is a spoiler). Overall, though, a good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse and Kidnapping

Minor: Genocide and Drug use

onkenzisshelf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.75

uxusexsexuatempteemprmur pidn
𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚𝙙:
👻This book was CREEPY. St. James did such a good job at making Idlewild the creepiest of creepy places - I found myself genuinely scared whenever the setting was Idlewild or its grounds. 
👻The use of different POVs and the jumping of time was incredible.
👻I absolutely loved how everything wrapped up in its own way, and everyone seemed to get the closure necessary. 
👻The connections made between everything was wonderful.
👻The pacing was spectacular, the plot was SO well done, and I honestly just loved this book so much. 

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝘿𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝙒𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙊𝙛:
👻I would have loved to see a little more about Mary Hand, whether it was her history or what happened after the fact. 

𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙄𝙛 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚𝙙:
👻The Sun Down Motel. If you don't like being creeped out, do not read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Death

Minor: Sexual assault