Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - I Have Some Questions For You

Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

181 reviews

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

I really enjoyed the writing style of this book where the narrator is addressing the possible killer directly throughout while telling the story of how events in the past and present unfolded. The story was a bit predictable but it took you on a wild ride before it got back to the obvious resolution, which was entertaining. The characters are loveable even though I’m not convinced they’re supposed to be. The plot was definitely believable as well.

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sandro_reads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

Perhaps my expectations were too high given my love of Makkai’s The Great Believers but, Questions felt like it was trying too hard.

Bodie returns to her boarding school 20 years after the murder of her former roommate, Thalia, and, together with her students, creates a podcast examining if the right man was convicted.

Part One was filled with so many characters across two timelines it was hard to keep track of who was who. And, there was the odd choice of having the book told in the first person but as if Bodie was talking to one of the suspects - which added to the confusion.

Questions tackles memory, true crime obsession, the justice system, cancel culture, #metoo, racism - the list goes on - which is the problem: it felt forced and took focus away from the core story.

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juwlie's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

ETA: After reading more reviews, I understand that a ton of the criticisms and reasons that people disliked this book was because of how it was marketed. I wasn't aware of the hype surrounding it, I had just seen the description and checked it out from the library because the premise seemed interesting. If I had gone into this with the expectation that it was a highly-anticipated thriller with deep social commentary, I would have been massively disappointed. It's a good mystery, but it's not a thriller, and there's nothing remarkable about it imo. I still enjoyed it!! But it would have been a very different experience if I had gone into with the same expectations that (it seems) most readers had.

I was slightly apprehensive about this book because of some of the reviews, but I ended up really enjoying it. I listened to the audiobook and blew through it in two days, partially because Julia Whelan is a fantastic narrator. There was nothing in particular that really wowed me about this read, but I was still very interested in the plot and I was super curious about how it would unfold. I understand that this isn't for everyone, though; if you were looking for a thriller and picked this up, I could understand your disappointment. It's definitely a mystery, but not a thriller. I enjoyed the narrative style, how it was addressed to one person but still told this whole story. If it was adapted into a miniseries or something like that, I would definitely watch it; but I wouldn't put this on any pedestals for being the best mystery book ever, which is where I believe a lot of the negative reviews come from. I do think it's possible that this is over-hyped, but I still really enjoyed it.

I was kind of disappointed with the reveal of the killer, but not with the story. I think that we, as the reader, are definitely supposed to believe that the teacher was the killer, so the reveal that it was indeed the boyfriend seemed strange, given that the book is written to DB. However, I understand that 1. it's more about the MC's disgust and disappointment directed at DB for his relationship with Thalia, and 2. sometimes it's literally just like that. Sometimes the perpetrator is the guy that seems obvious, but it isn't. I felt slightly disappointed but I also realized that it's realistic. It's also very realistic that DB's relationship with Thalia is a huge factor in what led to her murder, so even though he didn't do the actual killing, he was part of the whole thing. I was slightly more disappointed that we never actually saw/heard anything from DB by the end of the book. I don't know what I was expecting really, but I assumed there would be some kind of conflict with the MC and DB. The whole story was addressed to him, but what was the context? Did she write this up and send it to him? I was expecting something like "that's how I got here, to your house, to give you this" or something like that. It just seemed like some kind of resolution was missing there. But that still didn't take away from the story enough for it to really bother me.

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leafy_literature's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I ate this book UP! The ending was unsatisfactory, but realistic. I loved Bodie and how real she was. I liked how we never really "met" Bloch, even though we, as the reader, were him. Fastest read for me in years. Rebecca Makkai knows how to write, and suck you right into it!

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torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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erinestes's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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ballousclues's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective sad slow-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

2.5

I liked this book enough. It reminded me a ton of 13 Reasons Why, but surrounding homicide instead of suicide. This book was kind of hard for me to get through because of the pace. You are rehashing the murder of Thalia Keith from when Bodie Kane went to a private high school back in the 90s. Bodie works on a murder podcast and goes back to visit her old high school, The Granby School, to teach a class and help current high schoolers make their own podcast episodes.

Her whole time back at Grandby she is rehashing the murder of Thalia and trying to figure out who actually did it. One of Bodie's students decides she wants to do her podcast episode on the murder of Thalia and it reignites this fixation within Bodie. She can't just put the case down and clear it out of her head. It haunts her. As I mentioned above, it reads a lot like 13 Reasons Why. You have a list of names, why they did or potentially didn't do it, and then the book ends. To be honest, the story fell a bit flat for me. I liked it, but it was tough to get through and the ending didn't make it feel worth it to me.

I wouldn't recommend this book to a friend.

I kind of like books like this that don't give clear answers as to what happened and allow for us to create our own ideas. I can appreciate that most of this book centered around the fact that people don't always get justice and we may never know what truly happened. I think the book was more about "the friends we made along the way" than it was actually about a clear plot.

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