Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

One by One by Ruth Ware

16 reviews

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I thought this was an okay story. The beginning rundown of everyone at the company must work better in the physical book version than in the audiobook because I immediately forgot everyone. It would have made more sense to spread those little bios out over the first few chapters. It does feel like a lot of Ms. Ware's female characters hate themselves a whole bunch, which is a bummer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Bullying, Alcohol, Grief, Abandonment, Death, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Blood

Minor: Medical content and Injury/Injury detail

erkietheturkey's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Blood, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Mental illness, Murder, Alcohol, Bullying, Grief, Violence, and Medical content

Minor: Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, and Drug use

saliwali's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Cursing, Bullying, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Alcohol, Classism, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

a_alves00's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Classism, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Sexual harassment, Violence, Body horror, Bullying, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Murder

jenn_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I'd recommend the audiobook if you can manage it. Imogen Church is a  phenomenal narrator, and the climax of the action works SO WELL with the audio format.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Sexual assault

Minor: Blood and Vomit

Avalanche (major), hypothermia (minor), frostbite (minor), death of a sibling (moderate), death of a partner (moderate)

dorsetreader's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Violence, Classism, Drug use, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual assault

hnnh_bug's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.5

Fun whodunnit and a quick read (would recommend for a vacation read)--but if you're a murder mystery fan, very easy to spot the murderer early on in the book. I've seen a lot of negative reviews for people expecting this to be the next And Then There Were None. I wouldn't classify this as a locked room mystery as others have--it relies on all the old tropes in a predictable way and it's easy to deduce the murderer from the very beginning. There is also a fair bit of resolution after the reveal, so if you prefer your mysteries to end with the reveal, this book may drag out for you. But if you know what you're in for--a fun, if a little standard, whodunnit--this mystery is a cool (literally) setting with a good dose of squirming, entitled British-aristocracy-meets-modern-tech-bros. Additional content warnings: avalanche (environmental disaster/death) and a fair amount of profanity, if that's not your cup of tea. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Classism, Grief, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Blood

novi's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

The beginning of this book feels like The Guest List, it's FILLED with unlikable characters, jerks and bullies of startup people that are DEFINITELY into NFT, and one of the POV is from the host that takes care of the place, Erin. The book is a bit more tolerable because her POV. She's the reader's source of comfort, even though we still can't trust anyone yet.

I don't think the pace was very fast as I was hoping for, but it was steady. I was never bored but it's not that I couldn't put it down either. But the climax was really good. I was legit scared. It was really tense. And I think it did the "show don't tell" really well in revealing the twist. The twist unfurled slowly one by one. That part was so so good. 

The book also has a lot of skiing and snow descriptions/movements and lingo. And as a tropical child I'm just like...what is this I don't even care. I read them but they're just a bunch of words, nothing got in my brain. But I could still follow the plot.

Even though it's set in chalet in the middle of snow, this book didn't feel cozy at all to me. Shari Lapena's An Unwanted Guest has similar setting and that book was cozier than this.

The ending was a bit long for me. Well I guess they were epilogues. Quite long epilogues. It was fine, but honestly I didn't really care.

I was actually more concerned about if people will believe that Erin wasn't guilty, because there were no other witness, and the text that Liz sent could be incriminating. But the author doesn't seem to want to focus on the legal processing of all that and just wrapped everything up nicely. Which was fine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Emotional abuse

lexa's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.25

Solid thriller. Not sure it will stick with me long. But I very much enjoyed the quick chapters, the ski chalet setting, and the music start-up side story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Grief

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, and Blood

marlireads's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Entertaining, but not great. I predicted the whodunnit within the first few chapters and the big cast of characters we don’t really get to know. They were just kind of surface level and faceless. So I feel like this story had so much more potential that it didn’t make happen, which is a shame to be quite honest.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic friendship, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content and Blood

Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Suicide