Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

39 reviews

glutenfreemaggie's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide

kateea7536's review against another edition

dark 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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Unlike anything I’ve ever read. Simply incredible. So many twists and turns and secrets and lies that it was just fascinating as it unfolded. It is rare that such good and vivid writing is paired with a plot that unwravels so flawlessly without being clunky. I love how little I knew even halfway through the book - the characters were set up sooo well that you felt lied to as the reader. Even side characters were given substance and depth so that every part felt relevant to the story. There were lots of false alarm moments of tension that ramped up and then diffused, which kept me on my toes. The stark contrast between foolish child-like men and the intricate murder mystery was unique and captivating and also contributed to lots of looks at how females are treated and schoolboy culture, which can be highly toxic. So many ideas and themes were covered but it never felt like too much and this has shot into one of my top 5 books of all time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

zerkleoflife's review

challenging 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

4.0

It took me a realllllly long time to get into. Part of it was getting used to the British writing style (I’m American and didn’t immediately understand some of the vocabulary). But you don’t find out that someone could have died until page 63, and then you don’t even find out who died until page 285. But even though it took me a month to get through the first 1/3 of the book, I finished the rest in 2 days! The author developed the characters really well, and the plot twists were phenomenal. I recommend it overall, but definitely check the content warnings before reading!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Abortion, Murder, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Pregnancy

meaghanslibrary's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Compared to the Paris Apartment, this book had a more keeping me on my toes feel. It reminded me a lot of how big little lies the tv show starts where you know there is someone who has been hurt you don’t know who and the book flashes backwards and forwards in time across different viewpoints to give you pieces of the puzzle.

The fact that Will was Steve, the same person the younger sister used to date and got her pregnant - that was a huge twist that I didn’t see coming! The twist was also great because it explained so much of the younger sisters actions. Compared to the big reveal in the Paris Apartment that they were all a family that didn’t make me reflect so much on the characters past actions in the book as the big twist in the guest list did. Once that big reveal happened, and I think because I just read the authors other work, I realized that other parts must be connected - for example I had a eeey feeling that Hannah’s sister dated Will who spread the horrific video. Then the rest of the pieces started to click together. I didn’t fully piece that Aoife was the main killer for her brother, I still feel like there could have been more backstory with her and the connection to the island. Her slaying came and the motivations came about very abruptly. So that knocked off points for my rating. Most of my rating is bumped up from the big sister reveal. I thought that was very clever. Also the fact that the best man was supposed to be on the show that became more obvious as a secret once the sister reveal. That’s why I liked that reveal so much it gave me a sense of what was happening but still kept me on my seat to figure out who died and who the killer was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

bogwvlf's review

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Self harm, and Murder

Moderate: Abortion

jenna_justi2004's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow. It was so good I have no word’s anymore. I talked about it way too much that I don’t even know what to say.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

uhm_kai's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

very juicy mystery

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

spookysierra's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, and Suicide

Minor: Child abuse and Murder

kfespy's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Self harm, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

lydias1's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

2.0

Ew trigger warnings seriously needed

Not sure how I feel about the use of present tense

I’m not sure I like any of the male characters. I liked Hannah a lot and the sisters a bit. 

I liked having lots of different perspectives and timings, which I don’t usually enjoy. It kept a nice rhythm and pace.

I liked the relationship between Hannah and Olivia 

I like the mystery of who dies

I have so many questions and that pushed me forward throughout the book

I properly celebrated when Will died!!!

The fact that Will was also Hannah’s sister’s bf felt like it pushed me out of how realistic it was. It was too much. I don’t feel an ounce of pity for Will in spite of his father

I was kind of disappointed by the ending. After so much effort went into demonstrating that Will was the most vile horrible person who carries the guilt of so many lives ruined, being quietly and quickly stabbed didn’t feel like justice. I wish the truth had gotten out. I wish they all had their moment to confront him. I don’t like the lack of closure on the trial for Jono - I know he deserved to be sentenced for the manslaughter of the young boy, but I just have to imagine that all the truth came out in the trial and true justice was served after Will’s death. I wish that had played out in the book though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Graphic hazing