Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Schwarzer See

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Schwarzer See by Riley Sager

28 reviews

blackcatkai's review against another edition

dark 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

4.5

CW: Mental Illness, gaslighting, ableism, alcoholism, disordered eating, body shaming/fatphobia, murder, death, bullying, violence, blood, toxic friendship, suicide attempt, grief, cancer/terminal illness, some sexual content

I'm not necessarily entirely happy with the mental illness rep, but overall, I really enjoyed this. that ending, I swear. I love Riley Sager's writing and I'm so glad I finally got to this one.

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fraise'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? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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boba_n_books's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.75

The twist at the end is what saved this book for me. It was a decent and suspenseful story with some thrilling moments, but until it got to the climax, I wasn’t fully invested.

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blouviere4's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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librariangeorgia's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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'm a big fan of Sager's books anyway so I knew that i'd love this one.

It does start off a bit slow, but once it gets going it goes full speed ahead.

Following 2 similar situations that happened 15 years apart, it seems so obvious who the culprit is. However, I had my doubts about the fact that everyone assumed it would be Emma. Saying that, I didn't guess the actual whodunnit - the first reveal was a complete surprise for me but the second one, I feel now that it was more obvious after finishing the book than when I was reading it.

But that ending! That was one hell of a way to end it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book as I thought I would. I was completely absorbed in this book, I literally did not lift my head whilst reading it.

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cinthiaurora's review against another edition

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dark 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

3.5

I liked this book better than Final Girls and I do think the author has improved from it in terms of writing tension and suspense- HOWEVER Riley Sager very obviously has no idea how teenage girls speak, for one. To add to that, every female character (most characters are female btw) thinks and behaves in a way that makes it super obvious they were written by a male author, which is a pet peeve of mine. I gave this (almost) 4 stars anyway because I love a good Alison DiLaurentis-type psycho mean girl. Speaking of which I did pick up some lowkey Pretty Little Liars vibes from this book which is either the best thing about it or the worst thing about it.

Also, maybe it’s just that I had made the connection between PLL and this book early on but the whole “Vivian was alive the whole time” thing in the end didn’t really come as a huge shock to me. Vivian obviously being the Alison in this scenario. In the show one of Alison’s aliases was even NAMED Vivian. I wonder if Sager was inspired by the series at all because it would be a funny coincidence if not.
Oh one other thing, the whole moment with Theo in his car where he’s like “If you were older I would have kissed you back” ??? Now WHY would he go and say something like that? Ew. It sort of made sense when I thought he was trying to manipulate Emma’s feelings for him because he was up to something but now that I know for sure he was serious… Ick. Emma and Theo’s whole “romance” actually… questionable. Could have been done better for sure.
Edit: bumped this down from 4 to 3.75 because after you think about it for a little bit a lot of things don’t quite make sense. What else can you expect from this type of book though right

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mfrisk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I feel like I have mixed emotions about this book because though I felt it built up the world of camp midnight, the characters, and the suspense pretty well I felt a bit let down by the ending and that the pacing didn’t pick up until about halfway through the book.

I’m glad they didn’t go the cliche asylum route/mental illness gone wrong storyline but i can’t exactly suspend my disbelief about someone being able to slip under the radar for 15 years and apparently somehow have money to be able to stay hidden somehow… I’m just not a fan of the direction the ending took and feel they could have built up to it better.

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