Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

4 reviews

abicaro17's review against another edition

funny lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

So cute! I enjoyed this fun little murder mystery. It was funny and an interesting story about found family. I think the dynamic between Vera and the murder suspects was so funny and interesting. My issue with this book is how slow it is. The whole first quarter was so unbelievably boring. Like the murder wasn't even interesting enough to keep me engaged. Also the whole murder wasn't even that good. Like could have gone without that part. It was ok but not great. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Stalking, Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

toastyghosty13's review against another edition

dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

Vera Wong is such a funny character and I wish I had her in my life. She is a an grandma with too much time on her hands and loves to meddle in peoples business. When she finds a dead body in her tea shop, she seizes the moment to try to solve the mystery. She quickly starts meddling in the lives of the people that visit the tea shop after the murder, since she has the theory that anyone with a guilty conscience would revisit the scene of the crime. What happens is the creation of wonderful friendships between an unlikely group of strangers, and the rekindling of an old friendship. 

The audiobook for this is great, Eunice Wong has a great voice and did all of the impressions so well. It really takes another level of skill to sound like a 3 year old child, an old Chinese grandmother, a 23 year old woman, and more and be just 1 person doing all of these voices. My fiancee and I have started saying "AYAHHH" whenever we are upset about a small inconvenience now because Eunice's portrayal of Vera et al is ICONIC. I also now wish to name my firstborn Tilbert.

We mainly listened to this book during car rides and it was something we dearly looked forward to. It is actually laugh out loud funny, which rarely happens for me with books. This was a very cute story, but is also filled with some dark topics when more is revealed about the characters and their relationship to the victim.

If you like murder mysteries with a Miss Marple-esque character, you need to read this immediately!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Bullying

Moderate: Murder and Gaslighting

gillianengelbrecht's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Stalking, and Death of parent

theespressoedition's review against another edition

funny mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Death, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Bullying

Moderate: Cursing and Toxic friendship