Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

One by One by Ruth Ware

10 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

starsnotshadows's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Loved the suspense and I was falling for every red herring! I think I like a few other Ruth Ware novels better, so I ranked this one a smidgen lower just to reflect that. 

I just think the scenes following the Big Reveal felt a bit awkward and didn't really pull the ending together how I was expecting. Still great for the mystery and suspense though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Sexual assault, Death, and Gore

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

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

julienicole1106's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual assault, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Confinement, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

macyh's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Medical trauma, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death

Moderate: Sexual harassment

morganperks's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Death, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Sexual assault, Grief, Confinement, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Pedophilia, and Drug use

Minor: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Body shaming, and Suicide

birdbrainbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

I’ve seen One By One by Ruth Ware get very mixed reviews and I have to say—I really enjoyed it and in the thick of it was completely freaked out trying to go to sleep. 🤣The story centers on a tech startup’s team retreat to the French alps, which is interrupted after one colleague goes missing, an avalanche happens and more bodies start falling. There are definite eye rolls at some of the initial setup with the startup and it takes a solid 100 pages to pick up, but once the action does get going, Ware does a fantastic job with the pacing and building total sense of suspense, claustrophobia and paranoia. I am also a sucker for mountain disaster stories.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Grief

patricia_epub's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

I greatly enjoyed listening to this book. The introduction immediately caught my attention and got me hooked, and made me even scramble for my reading journal to take notes about each character profile so I could piece together their "personalities" based on the music they listened to, and maybe link them up into some archetypes as well. 

I also enjoyed the back-and-forth POVs between Erin, the chalet worker, and Liz, the oddball in the group of guests. I knew there was a reason why they were chosen as the "eyes" of the story and I am quite proud to say that I pieced that together early in the story.  I loved the epistolary-like sections at the start of each chapter, which ultimately showed me the author's hand long before she was ready to give the readers the twist. Despite this, I am happy that knowing the identity of the killer did not put a damper on my enjoyment of the remaining 70% of the book. 

I have my reservations with the fleshing out of some of the minor characters, who felt at times like caricatures with their brief comments or opinions. But considering how short their 3-day interaction was (not to mention the tragedies they faced on after the other), I think it's easy to get over with and just enjoy the ride. They were all definitely archetypes, as I had suspected right from the beginning, which did not give me much expectation in the character development area. My biggest issue was how some parts felt a bit draggy or even unnecessary. When I realized the entire ordeal only happened within 3 days, I was shocked because it felt like they've been in the cabin for a week at least.

The ending for the "villain" felt a bit anticlimactic for all that build-up, though. But I do appreciate Ruth Ware's attempt at parallel imagery. I would say that despite the twists and turns of the plot, the ending definitely cemented to me that this was a character-driven story. Overall, it was a good story and an equally-as-good execution. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Confinement, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Stalking, Vomit, Sexism, and Misogyny

xx_coco's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• 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

2.5

This was my second Ruth Ware book, and a much better experience than reading In A Dark, Dark Wood. When members of a tech company called Snoop are snowed in by an avalanche during a staff outing, secrets and old grudges come to light. During the destruction of the avalanche, one of the Snoopers goes missing and is presumed to be dead. Tensions rise as the group begins to wonder if it was a freak accident, or if there is a killer amongst them. 

The first half of this book was painfully slow, and the multiple points of view didn't work to further the plot until the last half of the story. For the most part, it was just little snippets of what everyone was thinking about the drama of a potential merger until after the avalanche happens. It felt like it served mostly as an introduction to all of the characters so we have an idea of them before the conclusion of the novel, when those individual points of view actually matter in relation to the mystery. Most of the characters were pretty insufferable, with the exception of Erin and Danny, who were the only two not involved with Snoop.

It was pretty easy to work out the "who" in this book fairly early on, but the motivation for the murders comes much later during the extremely tense last quarter of the story when all of the pieces fall into place. The feelings of isolation do a lot of work to create a fearful and anxious atmosphere where anyone would feel a bit helpless. The last bit of this book redeemed quite a few of its earlier flaws, this is when the multiple points of view really works for this book and creates tension you could cut with a knife. 

I'm not sure diving further into each of the individual characters would have fixed the issues I had with this one. It may have helped create some ambiguity so the killer wasn't as obvious so soon though. It's more of a personal comment, not an objective one, but the idea of Snoop did annoy me and the follower counts for each POV change was repetitive. Overall, I enjoyed this read well enough and it's a good atmospheric choice for the colder months. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Gore, and Sexual assault

Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

daralexandria's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Medical trauma

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders