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Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy
Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Gore, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cancer, Drug use, Miscarriage, Rape, Self harm, Excrement, Alcohol
If you have any concerns though—definitely check trigger warnings! There were a lot of sensitive topics in this one.
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Alcohol
Okay let's talk about the characters first, because they are all pretty terrible. It's written in first person from Lowen's POV, but then we get snippets of the manuscript she's reading, which is written from Verity's first-person POV. Verity is endlessly mysterious and, much like Lowen, I wanted to keep reading her manuscript to see what terrible thing she'd do next. Lowen was less interesting, mostly because she made herself so by making dumb decisions that she knows are mistakes. There is a love triangle here, but it's the kind of weird love triangle where you find yourself rooting for the other woman...and then you find yourself rooting for none of them because they are all equally terrible choices lol.
The plot though...the plot kept me reading. Even as I only sometimes liked Lowen, I was just as curious as she is and I wanted to know what was going on in this house. And that ending...no spoilers but you've got to read to the end for that last plot twist!
I will say, there is a bit of "no one believes this woman and thinks she's hallucinating things and crazy" to this plot...which I am not a fan of. But I think the fact that there were so few characters to this story made it work better here. The story is pretty contained to the house and the main characters of Lowen, Jeremy, and Verity. But I still wish thrillers wouldn't rely on the "is she crazy" plot device, so I couldn't give this one five stars.
Overall though, I enjoyed finally reading this and I understand the hype around it now. I think it's worth reading if you also have FOMO, but do be wary of the content warnings, as this is a dark book.
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Abortion, Murder, Gaslighting
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting
Graphic: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Murder
Moderate: Ableism, Infidelity, Pregnancy
Minor: Death of parent
Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Abortion
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Pregnancy
Graphic: Abortion
For me, there was too much graphic sex writing. I don't need that, and much rather things be left to the imagination. You can imply so much in the regard and I don't think it's needed for the book. I scimmed so many pages because I didn't want to read the intimate details of a sexual relationship.
The main character was kinda annoying and I did find her frustrating. Well, all the characters were kind of annoying. I didn't get behind the male lead, didn't find him attractive or appealing, as is usually expected. Even the kid was a pain in the ass, so yeah, no character love here. But this is definitely a plot driven book and did keep me on the edge of my seat.
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Child death, Death, Car accident, Abortion, Murder