Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Das verborgene Spiel by M.L. Rio

914 reviews

gia0203's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.75

AAAA!!! I feel like I’ve been reading books so critically and seriously lately and somehow this book made me feel like I was 15 again, devouring a novel whole and feeling every single moment of it. I have the sudden urge to read all of Shakespeare’s plays and start speaking in verse. What a treat. And the yearning at the heart of the story… It’s subtly teased and then it hits you at last and it’s wonderful. I love codependent, homoerotic friendships in fiction. 

This book is not very original. It borrows a lot from existing dark academia, obviously The Secret History being the main one. I do think though that the writing style makes up for its originality. It’s so lively and fun! And the characters too are so interesting and so sympathetic. A new favourite of mine for sure. I loved the twist at the end and the rising hysteria and ugh. Stunning. 

On another note… the male characters in this book are very complex and well developed and the female characters are very wooden, particularly Meredith. She faces a lot of misogyny and her character revolves so much around the men in her life. Just something to think about in terms of female representation, especially when written as “competition” in relation to queer men. Not quite sure if this book passes the Beschdel test. If not for this, it would be a 5 star for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Minor: Sexual content, Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Sexual harassment

erin_x's review against another edition

mysterious sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide

bookbrenna's review against another edition

dark 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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Bullying, Blood, and Murder

gondorgirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Drug abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Alcohol, Death, Murder, Blood, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Violence

chelle_benedetti's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Murder

Moderate: Suicide

technicallysam's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.0

this was hands down one of the most annoying, disappointing and frustrating books ive ever read. the characters and story have potential, and the plot is interesting, but i just got more and more frustrated and confused with every choice anyone made.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia

meaghanslibrary's review against another edition

reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The ending is kind of WTF. I recommend listening to this because it’s written like a play. 

The writing really created this universe of the school and I felt like I was there. I think I would have an even greater appreciation if I studied this in school and drew all the parallels to Shakespeare.

I’m still confused why they killed Richard, I’m not really understanding the motivation.

This was definitely an intriguing and fairly quick listen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Alcohol, Murder, Death, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Blood, Addiction, and Toxic friendship

elliebasta's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Suicide

mazzoccatoadele's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

throughout the whole book oliver is like "i'm fighting demons" and the demons are just bisexuality only for him to have no chemistry with either of his love interests

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Drug abuse, and Eating disorder

Minor: Suicide

kgreer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense 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

5.0

Wow. The emotions that I am feeling right now are hard to describe. The style of writing, the plot, the ending…it was “good as the best”.

I read this from a borrowed copy from my library and just bought it for my personal collection because of how much I loved it. 

The most tragic thing about this book is that I can’t read it again for a first time and experience the thrill anew. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Sexual content and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism and Biphobia