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haylsandtales's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
natalie_wyatt's review against another edition
5.0
⛓️ Dark romance
⛓️ Trauma bonding
⛓️ Forbidden
⛓️ Forced proximity
⛓️ Enemies to lovers
Holy shitballs Batman, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that has dragged me through the wringer as much as Still beating did and I mean that in the best possible way ever.
This will chew you up and spit you out the other end a new person, it was so beautifully written by Jennifer and truly portrayed that clusterfuck that is trauma bonding with a person and growing together in the aftermath of such a horrific event.
Please check your trigger warnings before going into this one though as it could be a hard read for some.
⛓️ Trauma bonding
⛓️ Forbidden
⛓️ Forced proximity
⛓️ Enemies to lovers
Holy shitballs Batman, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that has dragged me through the wringer as much as Still beating did and I mean that in the best possible way ever.
This will chew you up and spit you out the other end a new person, it was so beautifully written by Jennifer and truly portrayed that clusterfuck that is trauma bonding with a person and growing together in the aftermath of such a horrific event.
Please check your trigger warnings before going into this one though as it could be a hard read for some.
booklover_lex's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
5.0
the_escape_artist_'s review against another edition
4.0
Wow, this book really took me by surprise. I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t this. This book is deep, and dark and made me cry more than once. I could not put it down. This book was so much more than just a « dark romance » and classifying it as that does it a disservice I think. It reminded me a lot of Room, if that book had ended in a love story.
Some things I loved:
- how we saw that the trauma didn’t always create problems but just amplify them. Cora and Dean’s relationships with Mandy were not healthy before the kidnapping, and the trauma just showed all the fractures
- how developed the characters were. They were multifaceted and that made it really easy to empathize with them.
- the pacing, and the way the SA and kidnapping was dealt with. It wasn’t sensational or there for shock value which is a real problem is dark romance. The story was beautifully crafted
Two things I didn’t love:
-How shitty Mandy is, like over the top shitty and is almost a stereotype of a mean girl. She seems to be that shitty to be a foil for Cora, but ends up playing into the worst tropes, where she is selfish and image obsessed. She had trauma too, and heart break, and could have been more multifaceted.
- secondly, no one, not even Cora and Dean recognize that he was also SA’d and it’s really awful, and had me going « but how can he get better without recognizing that » his trauma was someone treated as less than hers, because her body was violated, but so was his, and I can’t imagine him not even discussing that with his therapist.
This book is really good, if you can handle a darker subject matter please don’t miss this book.
Some things I loved:
- how we saw that the trauma didn’t always create problems but just amplify them. Cora and Dean’s relationships with Mandy were not healthy before the kidnapping, and the trauma just showed all the fractures
- how developed the characters were. They were multifaceted and that made it really easy to empathize with them.
- the pacing, and the way the SA and kidnapping was dealt with. It wasn’t sensational or there for shock value which is a real problem is dark romance. The story was beautifully crafted
Two things I didn’t love:
-How shitty Mandy is, like over the top shitty and is almost a stereotype of a mean girl. She seems to be that shitty to be a foil for Cora, but ends up playing into the worst tropes, where she is selfish and image obsessed. She had trauma too, and heart break, and could have been more multifaceted.
- secondly, no one, not even Cora and Dean recognize that he was also SA’d and it’s really awful, and had me going « but how can he get better without recognizing that » his trauma was someone treated as less than hers, because her body was violated, but so was his, and I can’t imagine him not even discussing that with his therapist.
This book is really good, if you can handle a darker subject matter please don’t miss this book.
alexandra_ninelives's review against another edition
2.0
This was ridiculous.
The author wanted so many tropes and clichés in this book that the main characters did one thing per person and the rest of the plot was just happening to them and they went with the flow.
The dying of the first dog is an example for that. It didn’t need to happen, it was only so that Dean and Cora could meet again and have an emotional scene. (Like they didn’t have enough, right?)
Dean being in love with Cora while dating and almost marrying her sister was also cringe.
The serial killer part was only about 30% of the book and it was a let down. The author couldn’t write any emotions, the characters seemed like caricatures.
The way Cora’s sister dealt with her sister and fiancé being abducted and coming back was strange. If she truly loved them, she wouldn’t have been such a bitch to them. How can someone say that it was only 3 weeks?? Like WTF do you think happens when a serial killer abducts you?? You can’t really move on from that in two weeks… She should have been happy they survived and instead she just wanted them to move on with their lives the way she wanted them to.
This book honestly just tire me out and I wanted to love this so much because the premise of this book was everything. The execution was not worth spending time with this book at all.
It could have been either the book with the serial killer forcing them to fall in love or falling for my sister’s fiancé and it would have been less cringe.
Lastly, we didn’t see them fall in love. We got told that yes, they had to fuck and he had to watch Earl raping her, also they played 20 questions but there wasn’t one single scene where they had a connection. (Even after the survived, they mostly just fucked.)
You don’t need to read this book, I’m sure there are many others just like this one.
The author wanted so many tropes and clichés in this book that the main characters did one thing per person and the rest of the plot was just happening to them and they went with the flow.
The dying of the first dog is an example for that. It didn’t need to happen, it was only so that Dean and Cora could meet again and have an emotional scene. (Like they didn’t have enough, right?)
Dean being in love with Cora while dating and almost marrying her sister was also cringe.
The serial killer part was only about 30% of the book and it was a let down. The author couldn’t write any emotions, the characters seemed like caricatures.
The way Cora’s sister dealt with her sister and fiancé being abducted and coming back was strange. If she truly loved them, she wouldn’t have been such a bitch to them. How can someone say that it was only 3 weeks?? Like WTF do you think happens when a serial killer abducts you?? You can’t really move on from that in two weeks… She should have been happy they survived and instead she just wanted them to move on with their lives the way she wanted them to.
This book honestly just tire me out and I wanted to love this so much because the premise of this book was everything. The execution was not worth spending time with this book at all.
It could have been either the book with the serial killer forcing them to fall in love or falling for my sister’s fiancé and it would have been less cringe.
Lastly, we didn’t see them fall in love. We got told that yes, they had to fuck and he had to watch Earl raping her, also they played 20 questions but there wasn’t one single scene where they had a connection. (Even after the survived, they mostly just fucked.)
You don’t need to read this book, I’m sure there are many others just like this one.
kate4ez's review against another edition
5.0
I was hesitant to read this based on the subject matter, but I’m so glad I did. The basement scenes were disturbing but not excessively graphic. Unlike so many “dark romance” stories, the darkness in the story feels real, painful, and damaging rather than a justification for BDSM sex scenes. The pacing and prose kept me reading until 2 in the morning.
andreanhsearls92's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I thought this was going to be a book about two people who were kidnapped together, but it was actually their story after they escaped! It was beautiful and healing and I loved the whole thing!
takidodo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
readingwithliliana's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5