Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

True Story by Kate Reed Petty

15 reviews

mensi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

You really had to put in a lot of effort as a reader to get into the book. Still, I really like the writing style and I feel like the author had a lot of things to say which was good but also bad like sometimes it was too much and you would get lost in the story. 
I am ashamed to say that I was a bit underwhelmed w the ending like I was expecting something and the whole Q thing seemed unresolved. 
Still a very interesting book. Wouldn’t recommend tho. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Blood, Car accident, Death, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, and Self harm

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Rape

molliesafran's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

Riveting page turner that twists between realism and horror. I found some of the switches in tense distracting- the collage aspect of the book made sense but it was unclear to me why nicks sections were sometimes in first person and sometimes in third. Made it feel more jumbled sometimes. I think that was somewhat purposeful- an artful attempt to illustrate the trauma in the story telling? But it made the act of reading the book harder

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, and Emotional abuse

whimsy_and_rigor's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse

onion's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Violence, Sexism, Stalking, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Excrement, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

Minor: Car accident and Drug use

laurenbowes's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Rape

thereaderfriend's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-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? Yes

1.5

If you're coming to this book expecting a book that's marketed towards the main focus on the victim herself, you're going to be rudely mistaken. This book focused on  bystander Nick to the events of his friends. It mainly focused on his alcoholism but didn't have a plot to resolve his past issues. The author also used Nick as a questionable plot device

; He was brought to be a figment of Alice, the victims, imagination

. I'm assuming to make her seem unreliable and questionable but it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. Yes she was passed out when this event happened but using Nick and Q to question her sanity and credibility was wrong to me. Especially because everyone made it seem that she was raped

- even Richard seemed to admit that he raped her by acting suspicious through changing his name, created a company that helps erase incidents from one's pasts, had those long interviews for his book without her knowing it was him, etc

. They all went along with it, including Alice. "She was drunk, how are we to know she was raped?" "It was a misunderstanding", etc. -- these stupid rape defenses were what shouted out to me when I read that the boys seemed to rape Alice and Alice trusting the rumor and going along with it-- this can be incredibly harmful to those that were actually raped and not believed. And Q, he was ridiculous. He could've been used to talk about how sexual abuse victims tend to go into unhealthy relationships after trauma but no he was aimed to be this humorous supervillain. Lastly, Richard. Ugh, he was so suspicious. Who does all what he did if what was said to be a rumor was only a rumor? Those that are guilty. This book felt like a joke to sexual abuse victims. Do not recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Bullying, and Rape

Minor: Car accident, Animal death, Suicide attempt, and Sexism

corinnereads7's review against another edition

fast-paced

5.0

Don’t read the synopsis first, it’s better that way!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault

mmccombs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

What an interesting book! The construction was creative and the themes were so complex I already know I’ll be thinking about it for a long time. Each character was compelling and each “part” was so strong, especially in concert with one another. The audiobook performance was also quite good, so this was overall just a fabulous experience, highly recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Medical content, and Medical trauma

spellboundchapters's review against another edition

Life’s too short to read books I’m not enjoying. ✌️ Been thinking about dnf-ing this one for a while and I finally had enough. Thank you to all the reviews that spoiled the ending, I’m so glad I didn’t read to that point because I know it would’ve made me extremely mad…
I usually like when books use mixed media, but I hate the structure of this book so much — I read 4 out of the 5 parts and we haven’t found out anything about the main storyline since the first part? The last 3 were just so useless and I struggle to see why the author would tell these side plots, even after finding out what the twist is. Personally, it made me lose all of my initial interest. 😔

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, and Injury/Injury detail

madeleinebay's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Animal death, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Blood

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Drug use, Suicide attempt, and Car accident