Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Death of a Bookseller

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater

8 reviews

sierraclimbs's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I don’t have a ton of feelings about this book upon reflection.
I enjoyed reading it & I think it is an interesting commentary on true crime & the culture that surrounds it.
I’m excited to discuss it with my bookclub because I think it will bring up a lot of interesting conversations.
The thing I found the most interesting is maybe a bit of a spoiler but,

I found it interesting that if you isolate Laura’s perspective from Roach’s, it never seems like Roach is doing anything that sinister… if it was just a book about Laura, you would think she is an unreliable narrator

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elgin's review

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dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

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laurenvoice's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-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

4.5

Death of a Bookseller was a captivating, yet disturbing read!

The main characters, Roach and Laura, were well-written. They were so well written that somehow it became easy to feel sorry for Roach and have a strong dislike towards Laura.

Despite the feeling Roach was meant to be the "bad guy" in this story, it was hard to ignore Laura's toxic behaviour and no one ever holding her to account due to her past trauma; what happened was unthinkable, but it shouldn't give her a free pass to be a bully.

That said, Roach was very much on the creepy side; she's the female version of Joe Goldberg. It would have been interesting to get more insight into why Roach was the obsessive type and why she tried to mimic the image of other people rather than her own. Although it was easy to feel sorry for Roach, it did not excuse her behaviour and what she put Laura through.

Surprisingly, it felt fitting that Death of a Bookseller ended on a cliffhanger. Usually, a cliffhanger with no signs of a sequel is quite irritating, but for this story, it felt right. Death of a Bookseller had that constant dread and unease feeling; it only felt right that the story would end with the same feeling.

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katndrsn's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

Well the first 75% of the book had the potential to build to something brilliant but the ending was contrite and the epilogues were extra nails in the coffin. Disappointing really, I had much higher hopes for this novel.

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