Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

How To Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

17 reviews

rptomey's review against another edition

mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

emoryjoy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense

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

4.5

This book was so good! It was well written and I was thoroughly impressed with the writing. It nailed the back and forth narrative, jumping from the now back into the past and seeing how things went down and led to the events today. It felt like a proper mystery and while I guessed *some* of the ending I was still surprised at the twist. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

atamano's review against another edition

mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body horror, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Infertility, Sexual content, Violence, and Pregnancy

maryconney's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Vomit, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Outing, and Abandonment

dkamada's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful mysterious reflective

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

blewballoon's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, but I really enjoyed it. The present day segments reminded me a little of some of my favorite historical mystery series like the Lily Adler Mysteries and the Gilded Newport Mysteries, but in a contemporary setting. I actually thought the pacing between the past and present segments was done pretty well, the journal entries were interspersed in such a way that the reader was discovering them at the same time as Annie. I got pretty sucked in and had my own mental murder board going as more information was revealed. I also thought the author managed to handle introducing all of the characters/suspects in such a way that they were revealed gradually and with enough emphasis that it was fairly easy to keep track of them all. The audiobook narrators were both good, and reflected the different outlooks of their characters in their delivery. Annie had more of a sense of humor and Frances was more introspective. I'd definitely read more from this series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Murder

Minor: Drug use, Sexual content, Vomit, Car accident, and Pregnancy

clovetra's review

adventurous dark mysterious relaxing tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

what a sweet little story. usually with books i’m either in love with it or i absolutely despise it. and i am happy to report this was perfectly middle of the road for me. which is rare! in my mind average is still good.

i found the mc to be a bit bland. it felt as though she had no personality and was designed to be a reader surrogate, but that doesn’t really work considering annie’s role in this is connected through familial ties. i kind of feel as though she’s supposed to be a blank slate, but in the same vein she kind of can’t be due to her role in the story. i defo was rooting for her, and i liked that her prowess for mysteries was explained through her being a writer, but idk i didn’t really connect to her. like when weird shit was happening to her, i didn’t feel invested enough to be concerned for her. 

the side characters felt like they had even less characterisation. i think that’s because there’s just so many moving parts in this story, and ill be real it took me longer than i’d care to admit to align frances’ diary entries to their modern-day versions. but god because there were so many characters i lost track of a character’s significance. for example, because in frances’ diary the girls kept swapping between so many boys, i kept forgetting who ford or billy or archie were. i love when a mystery book can surprise me because i usually have a good track record for figuring out culprits, but i honestly think the reason i couldn’t crack this isn’t because this book outsmarted me in terms of how things happened, but i literally was forgetting who did what and how that links to the crime(s). i’ll give the book a point for keeping me guessing, but even still when the entire mystery was explained to me, i was still a bit confused because there were just. so. many. characters. especially mfs with the same last name. i know it’s because it’s a small town but oh my god i couldn’t keep track of who was related to who and how and my god my brain couldn’t keep up.

i did have quite a lot of fun reading this though. it’s the perfect book to cuddle up with under a blanket, and for a murder mystery, is pretty lighthearted (in a good way!!!!). i don’t want to seem like a dick but this was generic in some ways, but honestly cliches are so common because they’re good. you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. and i honestly didn’t want to put this down because i wanted to see where it was going.

overall i’d say i had a swell time, but god you almost need to take notes reading this to keep track of who’s who in the past and the future as well as who’s related to someone from the past. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Gun violence, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Car accident

mikathereviewer's review against another edition

funny mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

"‘Don’t worry, Annie, I’m not going to murder you.’
‘I appreciate that, Saxon,’ I reply. ‘I’m not going to murder you either.’ And then we both smile, because this is such a strange thing to say ten minutes after meeting someone for the first time."

There is no way that this book actually had over 500 pages. I started it yesterday and already finished and no I wasn't addicted to it. But I was addicted to some quotes in this book. 

+ Funny scenes and interesting plot (I mean, a woman getting more and more crazy about her fortune telling? Sign me up!)

+ Really nice and cool quotes (or maybe I'm biased since one is about chess)

+ Alice in Wonderland reference (one can never do anything wrong with this, I'm a huge fan)

+ Toxic relationships (I have a soft spot for drama and yes — I like to torture myself by reading sad stories)

+ The main character WAS NOT stupid! (Can you believe it?!!)

+ Relatable moments (‘I can’t face Mum’s basement again without backup. Last week when I was cleaning it out there were spiders. Huge ones.’

- Mostly flat characters (more murder mystery and plot than anything else)

- No explanation for things or stuff that was confusing. Example; We get told that Frances isn't the forgiving kind, but in her diary entries we see something different. And also the way another person confirmed it too by saying she is quite forgiving while others wouldn't in the same situation. What is she now??

- Boring ending (wasn't hard to find out who the murderer was and the ending was kinda meh)

- Too many repetitions (we get it who your prime suspect is and we don't need a re-telling of the diaries about one hundred times, just try to advance the plot!)

- Sometimes felt too slow (see above for reasoning)

- Even though the idea was good it felt like nothing special. Average the most. There just wasn't anything that made the book feel special. While reading I had the feeling (except the fortune stuff) that it wasn't anything new from most thriller and mystery books. 

- Sometimes we get new info, just for it to be superficial and not go into depth than it could be. There were so many other things that were interesting too while our MC tried to find out who the murderer is but unfortunately they are left again as fast as they were discovered. Why didn't we get to see more of the alphabetical sorted files and the bad stuff each person did. And we never got an explanation for Sam Arlington. The MC just decided it's not important and that she doesn't need to see other files or in general explore deeper. 

Only 2 stars as it didn't feel as exciting as I hoped for it to be and it's less than average for me as most things were superficial and we got flat characters which is quite dislike. The ending was predictable too which made me bored for the last 15% to 20% that were left. 

If you don't have high expectations for thrillers or in general don't think much about who the murderer might be this might be fun to read. For me who seeks books that are standing out from the rest and really hates it when the murderer is some obvious person I couldn't quite enjoy it as much as I hoped to. 

02. September 2024

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Gun violence, Infidelity, Grief, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Minor: Child abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infertility, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, and Alcohol

karlin0336's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A nice, quick read that is addicting from start to finish!  I think I thought pretty much all the characters were the killer at some point in the story, lol.  The book had plenty of plot twists and a tense ending that did not disappoint.  I wasn't the biggest fan of Frances's POV (she and her friends were pretty unlikable as teens), but I get that her chapters were important since they had major implications for Annie's story in the present and were helpful in solving the mystery.
 I am definitely going to be reading the sequel that comes out next year!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Infidelity, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Death of parent, and Alcohol

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

    The book was enjoyable, however, I enjoyed the flashbacks/diary entries more than the present-day portions of the book. I felt like the things that happened in the 1960s were more interesting and easier to get into than what was otherwise happening.

     Frances was much more interesting than Annie who was a bit boring, and whose story you didn't get into as much. I hope in future books we learn more about Annie and I start to care more about her & her character. Laura, Annie's mom just seemed awful for most of the book. 

    The characters were a mix of likable and unlikable. Not just the villains were unlikable, it was more like a 30/70 split of likable and unlikable for me. 

   I wasn't able to easily figure out the mystery. I do look forward to the next book.

Narrators' Rating: 4 stars

    I'd give Annie's narrator about 2.75 stars and Frances' narrator a 4-star rating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, and Dementia