Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

17 reviews

aserra's review against another edition

mysterious fast-paced

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

3.25

A compelling, easy read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Is the prose absolutely marvelous? Are the characters particularly stand-out? Is the plot life-changing? No to all, but it's a good book still. Liane Moriarty is a consistent, reliable career writer and storyteller. Nine Perfect Strangers is good to pick up if you're seeking something quick and not too deep, like a pleasant in-and-out hike.

The characters are not meant to be revolutionary and stand-out. The mundane ambiance is very purposefully and expertly employed. Moriarty does a great job at acknowledging the privileges of the main cast, and how a ten day health retreat isn't financially accessible to all.

If I could ask anything more of this book, it would be more overt diversity. While reading, I was picturing several of the characters as POC, but never got confirmation for anyone more than Yao (and Carmel, as it turns out, is not Black or of west or south Asian descent, but Romanian--aside from those two, I don't believe we receive any clues beyond everyone is upper middle class Australian). The inclusion of an explicitly queer character (Lars) was nice. I think Moriarty absolutely has the skill to extend the inclusion of this novel in a normalizing way like she did with Lars, but alas.

Again, a solid book! If I see other Moriarty books about, I'll be sure to pick them up.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Gaslighting, Suicide, Addiction, Confinement, and Cursing

starfish912's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, and Suicide

katewhite77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

<strong>As always utterly brilliant </strong>

Èven by Moriarty's standards this is a  slow burn particularly during the first half but during the second half you realise not a single word was wasted. 

Don't know why I should be surprised because this is what you sign up for when opening one of her books. She does the light and shade of the human condition so well. 

Lianne Moriarty is now cemented in as one of my favourite writers. However don't think It's to much of a spoiler to say it rather put me off health retreats for now.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Gaslighting, Child death, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Medical trauma

dogearreads's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, Classism, Dysphoria, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Suicide, Pregnancy, Grief, Death, Toxic relationship, Torture, Addiction, Child death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

creativeworld's review

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

It was a very slow pace and had too much in the character introductions before the plot really started. Not my cup of tea but was still a well written story. Perhaps just needed some more action in between introducing characters as there are so many. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Drug use, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship

helenferg's review against another edition

Way too much about suicide. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Grief, Self harm, Medical trauma, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting

theespressoedition's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

I recently read a blog post comparing the book to the tv show and the writer basically talked about how much better the show was. All I could think about was how, even though I'll never watch the show (because of the triggering content), the entire time I read the book, I kept imagining how it would be so much better as a show. So, that's basically the summary of my thoughts here. It makes a great story for a show, less so for a book because it's SO much to follow all at once. I love lots of POVs if it's done right, and I've always loved Moriarty's writing, but this one just fell flat for me. Good, but not great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Suicide, and Toxic relationship