Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Perfectly Preventable Deaths

Gosh this book was... not what I was expecting at all, and I can't say I loved that about it.
I was expecting a fun witchy read about a pair of sisters on different life paths - with one discovering love and the other discovering magic.
What this is is... an incredibly uncomfortable read watching a young teenage girl fall into an obviously toxic and abusive relationship. And though this felt very much like the point, it was a hard one to read. And it made it super hard to empathise with the characters when all I wanted to do was scream and slap on of the sisters into awareness.

The other problems I have... spoilers below
Be warned: I get very ranty, and there are some TW for the content of what happens in this book
So: firstly the scene where Maddy takes the family kitten, and is set on sacrificing him to apparently save her sister, despite not knowing how to do this fully, nor how it would even save her sister. Just that she was aware that there was something supposedly magical in doing so. Luckily she is stopped before fully killing the thing, but not before she stabs this poor kitten in the eye.... and I fully noped out. That level of animal cruelty and violence, just so disgusting and unnecessary. It didn't add anything but made Maddy out to be an irredeemable character in my eyes.
The second more plot based problem.
Lon is obviously bad news and a villain. And up to a point, this is supposed to be uncomfortable, so that you know this type of relationship between an older man and a CHILD is not OK.
But here's the thing. Everyone in the village knows this is bad news, and knows something is up. That this isn't just a super gross and abusive relationship, but actually even more sinister. They make some comments and do about jack-shit.
Then it's heavily implied Lon had something to do with one of the more recent murders. But "they couldn't prove anything". God this made made me loathe Catlin - even she says that. "They couldn't prove anything". Fuck. She doesn't even say "he didn't do it" just that they couldn't prove he did? That's so so so god damn obviously a confession of guilt. But despite the whole town kinda knowing he murdered a girl, just wasn't caught for it... they again do jack-shit to stop.
In the final pieces of the book, we find out Lon isn't entirely human. Is far far older than he appears. Things I had guessed. But adding to this - he is not only responsible for the deaths of the other girls. But is actually responsible for killing and EATING 101 girls. One HUNDRED and One. And it's heavily implied that people very much knew of some of these murders being him. And noone did anything? Everyone watched this cannibalistic murderer who has been preying on young young girls, presumeably for years, and has a body count that is probably larger than the population of the village itself. And noone did anything? Fuck me

Content Warnings

bowlofspaghetti's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

Content Warnings

wardenred's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

We’re so close to nature here. Lots of hidden life. And hidden death.

Wow. This book turned out to be way creepier than I expected.

It started mild enough: two twin sisters move to a mysterious little town as a result of their mother's second marriage, and then one gets obsessed with an older guy who is clearly bad news while the other struggles to figure out all sorts of things: what to do about her sister's destructive romance, what to make of this strange new place, how to figure out her own sexuality. There's also witchcraft. Dark and disturbing things happening in the local woods. Promises of more creepiness to come.

For the first 2/3 to 3/4 of the book, the story mostly stays rooted in the regular confusing teenage experience, with some mystery/witchy stuff added in for flavor, and it does the job rather well. Maddie's struggles are relatable. Lon, the older guy, is clearly a creepy abuser whether there's anything supernatural about him or not. The twins' family relationships are compelling.

Then, in the final part, the author decides to deliver on all those dark and disturbing promises, and my, does she go all out. There were several scenes there, in rapid succession, that made me physically cringe. I wish I was more thorough about checking the trigger warnings going in.

I mostly like the conclusion everything worked up to, but that last part was honestly jarring. It didn't come out of nowhere; it did flow quite logically out of all the earlier foreshadowing. But I felt like some of it was sort of too much for a young adult book somehow.

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