Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Inmate by Freida McFadden

8 reviews

k8lynn's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Stalking, Violence, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Death, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, and Murder

klenda_vee's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

2.0

The most I can say for the lead character is that she’s fully aware that she’s making stupid choices that make things go horribly wrong.

 The majority of her internal dialogue is “I know it’s a bad idea to share this information/allow this thing. Someone just told me not to! But it seems harmless enough,” for a solid eight hours. 
This isn’t bad in itself (it’s fairly realistic) to start an arc, but we don’t get no arcs today. She makes the same mistakes 99% through the book as she did 5% through and the nature of the mistakes pushing the narrative makes it a deeply frustrating book that I’m not sure why I finished. My consistent feeling was “I could put this down at any point and not feel any drive to finish it.”

The writing technique and prose itself is otherwise very good,  the audiobook reader (Leslie Howard) is excellent, and the pacing of the mystery is good and well-constructed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Medical content

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Violence, and Abandonment

Minor: Bullying and Car accident

aleen_elizabeth's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Grief, Murder, Bullying, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Classism, Mental illness, Stalking, Car accident, Kidnapping, and Torture

brynhayes's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Blood, Gaslighting, Murder, Death of parent, Alcohol, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, and Gun violence

filipa_maia's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.0

This was my first Freida McFadden book. Her books are so hyped now that I wanted to see for myself what was all the fuss about.

I really enjoyed the story. Fast, compelling, mysterious and dark - just my type of book. Although, at some points, I felt like the story was going nowhere, I think that overall, and by the end, everything went that way it was supposed to. And that ending? My God, I was not expecting that! Nice!

I will definitely read her other books now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Murder, Violence, Death, Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Police brutality, Death of parent, Medical content, Confinement, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief, Car accident, and Bullying

Minor: Gun violence, Abortion, and Kidnapping

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

    Brooke moves back to her hometown with her son after her parents die. She gets a job at the prison where her ex-boyfriend/son's father is incarcerated after she accuses him of a massacre the night of her son's conception. But did he do it? Or was it the boy next door she's now falling in love with?
    This was a good thriller. I was bouncing back and forth between who could have done it. It was one of the guys, but I wasn't 100% sure who it was.
     And the final twist with the son was interesting, though I'd figured out something was up with that little hint someone dropped.
   The characters however weren't very likable for the most part, which made it a bit harder to enjoy.

Narrator Rating: 3.25 stars
   The narrator was decent but pronounced some words oddly. Her voice was harder to tune out which was good. She just didn't make the book come alive as much as I would have liked.

Elemental Levels:  Fluff-NA   Heartfelt-4/5   Helpful-NA     Horror-1/5    Inspiration-NA  Love aka Romance-2/5   Mystery-4/5    Predictability-2/5   Spice-0.5/5    Suspense-3/5   Tear- 2/5  Thrill-4.5/5 Humor-0.5/5 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, Medical content, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Gun violence, Bullying, and Alcohol

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Child death, Classism, Mental illness, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Gore, and Cursing

Minor: Ableism, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Car accident, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Body shaming, and Abortion

fkshg8465's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

********** SPOILER **********


Felt like I was reading some adult version of I know What You Did Last Summer. Most of the book was mediocre, and the reveal was almost laughable, but the last chapter, the epilogue of what really happened after the reveal, gave me chills.

Only thing I can’t figure out is whether Shane and Brooke are related. They share a father, so yeah, but then why are the characters treated as if they weren’t half-siblings? Very confused!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Car accident, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Infidelity and Abandonment

Minor: Kidnapping and Incest

lulusreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

I found the protagonist to be irritating and the other characters fell flat for me. 
I was expecting more of a psychological “twist”, this felt more like a LifeTime movie. 

All Brooke would do is switch between believing Shane or Tim. I was tired of reading about Brooke saying “he’s a nice guy” “he’s hot” about her 2 love interests. Thank god for her 10yr old son Josh, he was the most interesting character even though we only got to read about his perspective at the very end, & learn the truth. What a smart mommas boy

The truth behind why Shane’s mom was out to get Brooke was dumb AF. Killing innocent teenagers because the person you’re “inlove with” won’t ditch his family for you.. 

There was no mention of Shane’s father, “Margie” Mrs.Nelson making the reasoning for this mess even more ridiculous. I almost want to give this book 2 1/2 stars but because I liked the Authors writing style & speed I’ll give it 3stars. The author did keep me intruiged the whole time even though the story is underwhelming and the main character was annoying & naïve 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Abandonment, Car accident, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Pregnancy, and Forced institutionalization