Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

12 reviews

thismermaidreads's review

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mysterious sad 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

2.0

This book starts with an unnecessarily triggering description of a mentally unwell teenage girl. I was able to mentally push past that just to get 80% of the way through the book where the main character does something I CAN’T stand in books and find incredibly unethical. So I know for those reasons I can't rate it higher than a 3...it's getting a two because quite frankly there were just too many oh my God I can't trust these people in her life and like i get it, but also like couldn't she have at least ONE person in her life who could be trustworthy? Oh she did...but yeah they weren't actually so this poor girl (woman) left the book with literally no ONE. Had that plot twist 80% of the way through NOT happened and she at least got a HEA I THINK I could have gotten up to a 3.5 4 star.
I just can't with people who use their horrific experiences as a reason to cheat on an otherwise loyal partner.

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blackcatkai's review against another edition

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dark 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

CW: Alcohol, Violence, Gaslighting, Blood, Ableism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, Gun violence, Mental illness/Trauma, Kidnapping, Medical content, Suicide attempt

if you've read a bunch of thrillers, you may see a couple twists coming but overall, i thought this was a pretty tense story. some of that really just stems from being frustrated at how the MC is treated or the decisions she makes, but i enjoyed it. there were even a couple twists i DIDNT see coming, so that was nice. i can see why the general consensus is mid, but i'd recommend giving this one a shot anyway.

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yuyuv's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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rachelmerrie's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This held my attention the entire time. I loved the mindset it put me in as far as thinking about the relatives of serial killers and the trauma that comes from it. So many twists at the end. 

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meeklovestoread's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.75

Okay sadly I'm not giving this 5 stars like everyone is, but I could see the appeal of this book.

Now I'm not necessarily saying this book was predictable but I wasn't surprised when the twist came. When I'm reading thrillers I usually have a list in the back of my head on what the twist is gonna be and that one was on my list. But don't get me wrong there were still a few things that shocked me.

Honestly the book wasn't suspenseful enough for me. Like I wasn't on the edge of my seat or anything. But it wasn't too boring to where I was gonna put it down.

I still feel like there was still some unanswered questions that needed to be addressed. Like for example
how did Daniel get Aubrey's necklace? Where would Cooper get the drugs from to drug his victims? To me, Daniel was still a little suspicious. Also, I feel like Cooper's motive was so anticlimactic.


I feel like this book was pretty simple. A decent thriller for people starting out. Not too crazy, but predictable enough to still keep you entertained. 

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hamohero's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.75


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nrogers_1030's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad 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

Holy hot damn! I’ve got whiplash!

4/6/23 - I didn't like it as much as I did the first time I read this. 4 ⭐

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bookishgoob's review

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

H o l y c r a p was this book an absolute RIDE. 
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham follows Chloe Davis, now in her 30’s still plagued by what her father did when she was a child. As the 20 year anniversary of her fathers crimes nears closer and closer every day, the same pattern of crimes starts happening again. Being girls that she knows, she starts to suspect people around her and her world unravels. 

It’s so interesting to me, reading thrillers as often as I do, because I usually know what i’m looking for when it comes to trying to spot who is the person at fault. While I made some guesses in the beginning that turned out to be right, I wasn’t expecting it to unravel the way that it did. The feeling of being in Chloe’s shoes and not knowing who to trust made my heart race. This was such a good example of not giving away too much information, yet still finding things out in unison with the character. Feeling the same sense of uncomfortable tension and trying figure out what’s going on along with the main character is such an awesome way to feel included in the writing. The darkness that creeps inside of her, the feeling of not being able to trust herself wholly when it comes to everyone around her, and the subtle gaslighting she does to herself were all so well written. One of my favorite things about this book was the use of foreshadowing, how it wasn’t so obvious that it ruined the ending early, but it wasn’t so subtle that you didn’t know fully what was going on. This author did such an awesome job of using our minds against us while looking at each of the suspects. I fully enjoyed this book. I gave us just a little less than 5 stars because I would have like to see a little more of the ending scene where the truth comes to light. it seemed just a little rushed to me. Other than that, I have no complaints with this book. It kept me on the edge of my seat, holding my breath, and biting my nails. It definitely feels like a slow start but when it gets going, it GOES. if you’re looking for a thriller that will keep you up all night trying to figure out who did it, this one is definitely for you. 

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taelights's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

This book had so many fun and unexpected twists I absolutely loved it. I had thought I figured it out at about 50% in and had two theories I was really leaning towards and just when I thought one of them was it the last twists slapped me so hard out of nowhere. 

I almost gave this book 4 stars due to me being genuinely shocked by the ending but I have settled on 3.75 because I found the main character often annoying me. I thought a lot of her decisions were very dumb and dangerous plus like I get that she has trauma from her childhood but that doesn't excuse her actions or dangerous and illegal practices when it comes to taking pills. 

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missemilyn's review

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challenging 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

5.0


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