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yessenyan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Minor: Death of parent, Eating disorder, Child death, and Death
leexpenandpages's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Struggling with all-consuming rage, Jane North-Robinson feels chilled by more than just the autumn air when she and her mother move to her mother's childhood home, where Jane must dig up her mother's secrets to understand what is happening.
🏚📚🌹🎒🪦👻👩👧🎃😭
👍🏻 RECOMMENDATION:
💛 READ IF you've got nothing else, if it works for a reading challenge, etc.
💬 FAVORITE QUOTES:
• Pg. 201
do books taste like roses?
A flash of the earth with everything destroyed except this house, the last building standing, and Jane within it, trapped inside its walls, not really caring anymore whether she made it out or not.
She imagined the words dissolving off the paper and sinking into her bloodstream. She imagined her body filled with words. Made up of them. Words instead of blood, words instead of organs.
👓 FORMAT:
📖
📑 COMMENTS:
• The main characters are complex and flawed. Jane's friends are heartwarming and supportive.
• Jane is frustrating slow to figure out what happened, leaping to illogical conclusions for the sake of continuing the mystery.
• I mostly agree with the Booklist quote on the back, which reads, "Leno blends Agatha Christie and Shirley Jackson for a narrative that ranges from unsettling to genuinely terrifying." (I did not find the narrative terrifying but otherwise agree.)
• The book starts a little too slow, and it ends a little too quickly, but the middle is well-paced.
• Race is poorly represented. Some of the characters seem like they were originally intended to be POCs but were changed to white or the author used POC aesthetics. The black characters are black only in description of skin tone.
Graphic: Chronic illness, Bullying, Murder, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Grief, Addiction, and Mental illness
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Pregnancy, Animal death, Violence, Self harm, and Cursing
Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Blood, and Classism
madamenovelist's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Violence
kaleighmadden's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent and Child death
Moderate: Grief and Mental illness
quercine's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Body horror, Bullying, Gaslighting, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Vomit, and Violence
Minor: Confinement
vi_holmes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
TLDR: Scary, but the ending -- or really lack thereof -- took a lot away from it.
Graphic: Death, Child death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder
Moderate: Self harm and Suicide
themes of paranoia, anger management issues due to mental health, and feelings of growing insanityilaxaria's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Alcohol and Suicide
limdurlu's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
1.5
Graphic: Grief, Child death, Animal death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Murder and Suicide
greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Death, and Pregnancy
paulineerika's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
Graphic: Mental illness, Grief, Death, and Child death
Minor: Suicide