Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Allegedly

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

65 reviews

lindsaydrue's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Wow. This one was a roller coaster from start to finish. A 5-star read until the very end, so I’m docking it half a star because I didn’t love how it ended :-/ I read as an audiobook, which I cannot recommend highly enough. The narrator absolutely nails each of the characters. I feel like any more of a review would be telling too much, so all I can say is listen to this one pronto (especially if you’re my friend so we can discuss!)

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abbie_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

4.0

This is the perfect kind of book to listen to! So intense and keeps you guessing right until the end. And performed by the wonderful Bahni Turpin

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onemorepagecrew's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Allegedly is yet another Tiffany D. Jackson book that had my complete attention. In it we meet Mary, a fifteen-year-old girl who is in the care of a state-run home after serving six years in juvenile detention. When she was 9 years old, the 3-month-old baby that her mother was babysitting was murdered … and all signs pointed to Mary.

But did she do it? That’s the question you’ll be wrestling with the whole time.

I loved the psychological guessing game in this one. Mary is intellectually gifted and processing trauma, so as a reader it’s hard to know if you can trust her inner monologue at times. Her mother is perceived as a church-going, good person but as a reader we see glimpses of other sides of her personality. Mary’s state-employed caregivers are rarely in her corner and sometimes working against her best interests. And her boyfriend is desperate to keep them together, especially now that Mary is pregnant.

You’ll think you know Mary. You’ll think you see what’s happening. But if you’re anything like me when reading this, you’re in for a satisfying storyline and ending. In the beginning of the book, I felt like the characters were misreading each other and at some point, I realized I was misreading them too. I really love when authors subtly toy with the reader like that – it’s the finesse of a psychological thriller.

This book was the debut from the author and has her classic style of waving societal issues into tense storylines that keep you turning the pages. She has a gift and to see that her first novel was this strong is impressive.

Content warnings: Child death, Child abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness

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amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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jacksandthebeanstalk's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Oh i’m so frustrated by this book. I think if this had been presented to me in a different way I would have enjoyed this book much more. Instead of it being presented as the thriller/unreliable narrator, it was presented as a critique of society. To be fair, this is what other people had said in their reviews/recommendations so I don’t know if the authors intent was for this to happen or not. But it was frustrating to go the entire book thinking you’re getting one thing and then getting something entirely different. That’s the nature of a good plot twist but because of the hype surrounding this book and what I had been told about it, it just wound up not being my cup of tea. And I also think some valid critiquing of our justice system was done. I just think that the ending completely undid all of the work the rest of the book had done.

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