Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda

13 reviews

lampbee's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.75

Fun :) Predictable twists but still entertaining the way they unfold. Some loose ends but nothing crazy. Lots of red herrings but again still entertaining.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Death of parent, Self harm, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Suicide

certain things didn’t tie up nicely like

how exactly did Det. Collins set up the suicide note and the diary in this situation? And how did Avery not notice blood stains on sheets?

Some reveals were great like the

car being used to take sadie

but the reveal about

Avery being the owner of the rental properties

was odd and since it was maybe in the very last paragraph of the book you had no time to think about it and it just made me sort of dislike Avery.

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

This one didn't get me as hard as some of Ms. Miranda's other books. I may have been distracted, but there were kind of a lot of people involved. And it seemed quite a coinkeydink that

the MC found the hidden thing from her friend on that island.

But I swear, unless the girlies are

ACAB

, they always get into trouble.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Abandonment

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Classism, Alcohol, Murder, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Blood and Emotional abuse

readingwithcats's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Murder and Confinement

kyrstin_p1989's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

Decent thriller. Sad. Frustrating. Highlights the ways money can get you anything. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Classism, Death, Infidelity, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Police brutality, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexism, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Violence

basil_plant'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? No

3.0

investigation seemed to drag on while the discovery/ending was too rushed

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Murder

bringmybooks's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.25

And with that, our Megan Miranda season comes to a close ... (for now, anyways)

B̷R̷I̷N̷G̷ ✨ 𝗕𝗢𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗪 ✨ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷

1. The Only Survivors (2023)
2. The Perfect Stranger (2017)
3. All the Missing Girls (2016)
4. The Last House Guest (2019)
5. The Last to Vanish (2022)
6. Such a Quiet Place (2021)

Well, there you have it. 6 Megan Miranda books in 6 days. OOF.

(Even as I have them organized as I do, I would recommend any one of these if someone asked - but if you had interest in the plots of the ones towards the bottom, I would just advise you read those first so that they can just get better and better as you go!)

The Last House Guest just so happened to be my Last Megan Miranda book (for the time being) and I think it was a really nice one to go out on. I liked the way it kept going back and forth with the competing timelines, and I was genuinely shocked a number of times. 

I love how the author manages to sneak in so many inconsequential details about things that are actually SUPER consequential and when those things come back around you find yourself going, "How did I not see that coming???" when in fact even if you had been looking she went about it in a way that made it easy to miss.

I believed in these characters, and in the story that she told. I believed in the motivations, I believed in the practicality of it, I believed in the plausibility of it. There were a couple of character relationships I would have liked to see a bit more backstory / depth / conclusion on, but when you look at the way the novel is set up I truly believe she closed out all the paths that were relevant to the main character in relation to her story & arc at this time, and ultimately I'm just gonna let it slide! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Blood

katiejohns's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Car accident, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide, Alcohol, and Fire/Fire injury

katrinarose's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

This is one of the better mystery thriller books I’ve read recently, although it has its flaws. I thought the mystery was interesting, the writing engaging and the plot fast. The ending/reveal wasn’t crazy but I also didn’t predict it. There were a few likable characters but many were unlikable, and I wish the unlikable characters were given a bit more depth. I didn’t love that although we were in first person, Avery (the protagonist) kept revealing new things that she knew about what happened throughout the book. This style kind of annoys me because if it’s first person I believe we should know everything that’s going on in that person’s head. If there are secrets to be kept, stay in third person. That’s just my opinion though. It was a fun mystery with a great setting and atmosphere and it made me interested to try out some of the author’s other work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Car accident, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, Blood, Self harm, Violence, and Classism

Minor: Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense 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? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Grief, and Suicide

jamonicatierra's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I liked the setting of the story and that it was set in a seaside community; I find these locations are great settings for mysteries and thrillers. Speaking of settings, this book does flip back and forth between timelines: leading up to/ when one of the characters (Sadie) died, and after the character’s death, but I didn’t mind the timeline switches. I also liked the pacing of the book. I found some scenes to be suspenseful when it came to suspicious things that were happening in/around the rental homes where the main character Avery worked even at times some characters seemed suspicious too. This is a good book, I only wished the mystery/ big reveal was a bit more enthralling since for me it’s not that memorable. Overall The Last House Guest is a well paced, mysterious and enjoyable read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Car accident, and Murder