Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - The Night Swim

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

207 reviews

kelley_beth's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Well… this was a mediocre crime thriller. The podcast interjections were kind of lame. It would have flowed better without them. I really like a court room drama. And the story was relatively interesting until the final twist. It was just TOO out there. Like.. she was aiming for a big surprise that people wouldn’t guess and it was true.. i didn’t guess it, but she way overshot it. The last 50+ pages were overly dramatic and a bit eye roll inducing. I’m also not sure why she made Hannah seem like a stalker.. it was clearly added for creep factor but it really added nothing to the story. It felt ridiculous. Pacing on the thriller aspect and unwinding of the clues was pretty solid though.

Content Warnings

elsebeok's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

Content Warnings

megob's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

Really great book, great plot and pacing and format. Really difficult to read due to the content.

Content Warnings

thebookishfaerie's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad 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? No

4.5

Content Warnings

sarah2438's review against another edition

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4.0

This is so hard to rate because it was not enjoyable. It was emotionally exhausting to listen to on so many levels as you listen to the trauma of these characters. For someone that's uncomfortable with r@pe/SA content, I really went big here.
Despite that, I have to admit that the atmosphere and pacing was well done. We could've gotten bogged down with boring trial details and that didn't happen. As someone that works in these settings, I appreciated the accuracy of the trial details. (I'll even forgive the author for not including a victim witness coordinator.) The novel contained important social critique and questions about how we treat victims, without ever placing that blame on prosecutors or law enforcement. Don't get me wrong, no one is perfect-- but far too often those two parties are taking the bulk of the blame.
The main critique I have is how underdeveloped Rachel was. She seemed to really only exist as a storytelling mechanism and didn't have any personality or motivations beyond what she said on her podcast. I also thought the big reveal of Jenny's offender was a bit of a disappointing and random choice. I think my guess was better...
Did I enjoy it? No. Do I recommend it? Yes, with a long list of conditions. But it's well written and makes you think.

Content Warnings

ashleechmiel's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense 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? No

4.5

This book has a lot of graphic descriptions of rape and sexual assault, you will be uncomfortable at times. But honestly I think it’s about time people got uncomfortable. This may be a fiction novel but so much of it really hits home with the realities of how sex crimes are seen and handled. There are two interwoven plot lines here and you will go back and forth on who is guilty in the Stills case, and you don’t find out until the very end. I didn’t know how that story line was going to flush out with so little left in the book but it did very smoothly.

Content Warnings

roxanned's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

Content Warnings

ashleynewman's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Audio version was entertaining with the podcast element. Extremely dark/heavy subject matter but I never guessed the ending, which is rare and a big plus.

Content Warnings

chivster's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad 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? No

3.5

Content Warnings

pandalesque's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

Heavy one to get through. Focuses on the trial procedures of a rape case and the bad an ugly that goes with it.

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