Reviews with content warning for Murder - What Happened to Nina?

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan

13 reviews

searchandrescueteam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

I hate blurbs on books that anticipate your response, and this one had “Everyone’s going to be talking about that ending”. Yes - the end is an interesting twist. However the book itself is even more tangled and engaging. There is the plot-line, but it is the responses of the characters that kept me reading. And each chapter is told by the various characters in turn - a nice device, like pulling together the pieces of a jigsaw, whilst sometimes seeing how they must come together but not knowing how they would.

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whitneyfoster's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

This book was interesting enough to keep me reading, but it’s almost a play by play of the Gabby Petito case. I was waiting for some surprise twist, but it never came. The characters were all pretty unlikable, but the ending was somewhat satisfying.

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coronationcorgi's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense 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

What Happened to Nina? is somewhat of a misnomer because the reader finds out right at the start of the novel what happened to her. The novel really pivots around two main threads. The first is that of her family and their desperate search to find her and then to seek justice. The second relates to Simon, her boyfriend, and his family. As the last person to see her alive, he is clearly a person of interest, and his wealthy influential parents are very invested in protecting his reputation and theirs. The way they use their privilege to slow the investigation and to spread misinformation online was totally rage inducing. I enjoyed seeing this story unfold through a variety of perspectives. It certainly made me think about what I'd do if I were either set of parents. While I may understand their motives, I'd like to hope my actions wouldn't mirror theirs. I also enjoyed what McTiernan has to say about privilege, social media, and justice. It's not new nor revolutionary, but it's an important message that can't be repeated too often.

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readingonfordearlife's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated

4.5

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booklvrkat's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

“Simon and I met in school when we were five years old. In middle school we became friends. When we were sixteen we fell in love.”

Ah, young love. Nina and Simon fall in love in high school. They are the ultimate young couple, they are fun, and their families see a future for them. Nina blows off work, her family owns a B&B, and they travel to Simon’s family cabin for the weekend. Only Simon comes back from their weekend, and as the truths and lies spiral, both families understand that there is little that they won’t do for their children.

“I packed my bag. And then I went downstairs to tell Simon that we were over and that I never wanted to see him again.”

Wow. This was a wild ride. It’s very suggestive of the Gabby Petito missing story. Not to mention that the shadow of social media getting in the way of the search for Nina. The anxiety I felt listening to this story was off the charts, and I found myself cringing every time someone stood up for Simon. A fast read, the full cast made this story extraordinary, and I feel like I’ve missed out reading this author.

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bookish_amber's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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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goodin10tions's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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henrygravesprince's review

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dark emotional tense fast-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

In the interest of full disclosure, this review is specifically regarding a DRC copy of the book from Net Galley, so while I imagine this eBook was pretty close to finalized, some details may have been changed between my copy and the official release.

I think I would recommend this both to people who regularly read mystery-thrillers and people interested in reading more of them. I think the strongest element of this book is the depth of the characters and the unique storytelling balanced with a story that is, unfortunately, as old as the concept of true crime itself. The weakest is the opening, which didn’t line up with the quality of the rest of the book. I wish that the first 25% of the book were more cleanly edited and succinct in the way the end of the book is—this is one of the few times where the end has seemed more polished than the beginning of a book, at least to me. I think I would recommend this both to people who regularly read mystery-thrillers and people interested in reading more of them.

The narrative was very well-layered and put together with a lot of intention; you can tell the author knew the details of the story they were telling and wasn’t just making things up on the fly. Conflict was well-established and built up effectively, and pacing was consistently quick, but not really overrushed. I was surprised at certain story beats happening so quickly in the narrative

, but the question of who did it and how isn’t the real driving force here: the actual question at the core of the narrative is which family will come out on top in the battle for their children

. Characterization was incredibly potent and consistent, with each character feeling very distinct and easy to differentiate from. A lot of the cast wasn’t necessarily likeable, but they were memorable and compelling enough to make up for that. There wasn’t a whole lot of visual or sensory description, which made instances where it was utilized all the more impactful, especially in the scenes where Nina

, and eventually Nina’s corpse,

gets described.

The writing style was consistent, narratively appropriate, and very strong. For the most part, I don’t think over-/under-writing are an issue in this book, save for in the prologue, which may be rectified in the final copy; for example, the lobster-pot metaphor speaks for itself; the further explanation of what it means was unnecessary. Syntax was coherent, building relatively straightforward, linear sentences. While spelling and grammar were for the most part adequate, there were some things that brought me out of it, like putting a space in chainsaw (“chain saw”). Phrasing was clear and consistent, if not occasionally a little repetitive—lots of sentences starting with “Also,”—but, ultimately, it evens out by the end of the book. Dialogue was occasionally kind of sloppy, but not too detrimental overall.

Shifts in point of view are made clear chapter to chapter, and very well-done. I was genuinely impressed at how well the author was able to juggle so many different character points of view, especially while maintaining a solid sense of voice for each character. The fact that the two characters we don’t really get perspective from are Nina and Simon (save for the prologue, which, frankly, I think people could skip or save until the end to get a better reading experience) was interesting and a cool way to play with a different perspective on this kind of story. I thought the use of first person for the family members, but third person for the police officer’s chapters, was very clever; as a result, the point of view and depth of perspective all felt very natural and appropriate.

One thing that did give me pause was the very random insertion

of a man harrassing the Frasers having Borderline Personality Disorder;

it felt irrelevant and stigmatizing, especially since the character had little screentime or influence on the plot. The specification of diagnosis was unnecessary. Similarly, I could’ve done without the use of “slow” as a pejorative, which I’ve discussed the ableist origins of in other reviews before and won’t rehash here, which occurred a couple of times, but otherwise the language used wasn’t inappropriate or offensive.

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emilysfullybooked's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

What Happened to Nina? has been so beautifully written by Dervla. My heart aches for Leanne, Andy, Grace and Nina. And that ending 🙌🏻 I couldn’t put this book down and finished it in less than 24 hours.

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