Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

The Change by Kirsten Miller

19 reviews

ida's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

The seer. The protector. The punisher.
Nessa, Jo and Harriett. 

When three women discover the body of a young girl, they start out on a journey to uncover and unravel the insidious network of abuse that has been going on in their community for decades.

This book is magical realism mixed with furious feminism and I loved it. I immediately bought into the whole idea of some women having magical powers and I loved how differently it manifested in the three women. 

At times, the pace seemed too slow, and I could have been without some of the background stories of minor characters, although I do think they give a lot of depth to the story. In fact, the flashback chapters were my main gripe with this book - I often spent the first few sentences being confused as to why characters were suddenly in different locations, before realising it was a flashback, so I would have loved some an indication of that in the chapter headings. I listened to the audiobook, so I don't know if there was a visual clue in the printed copy.

The plot is absolutely believable; powerful men doing what they want because no one stops them, and the many instances of bias and outright misogyny is straight out of the real world. 

Nessa, Jo and Harriett were all amazing characters, but my favorite by far was Harriett. She had a quiet menace about her, and no qualms about meting out punishment. 

I also liked how, towards the end, a lot of hints were dropped, just enough to keep you on your toes, and although could tell where the story was going, it was a joy to be confirmed in my hunches, definitely foreshadowing done right! And there was a twist I didn't see coming, much like the characters themselves. 

All in all a really great book, but tw for sexual abuse, violence against women, and graphic violence to name a few. It will make you sad, it will make you angry, and it will make you want to be as kick ass as Harriett Osbourne.

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lpdx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.5


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ellenwilberg's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious

5.0


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mpimental's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0


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bedtimesandbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

5.0


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heather_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-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? Yes

4.25


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meliroo's review against another edition

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dark mysterious

4.5


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shanchat's review against another edition

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dark 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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libertyreads789's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

3.25

Before I get into the review, I want to say a quick thank you to NetGalley and the publishers over at William Morrow & Company for letting me access this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Change is an Adult Fantasy/Mystery/Thriller about a group of women in Mattauk who have discovered magical abilities as a part of their midlife crisis. Those abilities end up putting them on a collision course with the evil that lives in their wealthy beach town. I’ve seen this pitched as Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick. The Change is out on May 3rd and is available for pre-order now.

There was so much in this story to love and, yet, it fell short for me. I love this beachfront town and all of the wealthy (and not so wealthy) people who live and work there. At first this story really gave me Revenge vibes which I loved and wanted more of. But the story focuses less on the rich people in town and more on the lives of the people who also live and work in this town and have to make it work. There is an ensemble cast of characters who all have their parts to play in this story. My favorite character is probably Jo because she seems the most well rounded character in the story. I feel like I know her a lot better than I know other characters. I love the image of strong women wanting to take back their town after disaster strikes and wanting to prove that women belong here just as much as the men do.

But where this powerful feminist message got lost for me was that it was constantly putting the men down in the first half of the novel. As we learned in the 2010s, that’s not how actual feminism works. Feminist ideology is not about hating men. I also didn’t love the messaging that came across as the women discovered this horrific event. It was seen as: of course this happened. Of course a woman was sexually assaulted and murdered. They’re a woman in a world of men. It was gross and it severely dialed down the horror of seeing what happened to this character. Also, I didn’t appreciate that most of the villains in this story were villains who might one day give a speech outlining all their evil plans while twirling their mustache. Their actions alone would have made me hate them. I don’t then need the author to add another level of evil behavior to make sure I know who’s the bad guy.

The things I enjoyed and really wanted more of were the magic elements and the women pulling together to take care of business. I loved that this was a magical realism story while also having a mystery/thriller element. I love the way the genres were mashed together. But I just found this a little heavy handed.


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