Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan

6 reviews

clara_h39's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.75

I normally don’t like thriller/horror/psych books, but I really enjoyed this one. It was not too graphic since the mass murder took place before the book, and its only slightly gory during flashbacks. Very interesting and detailed world bulding. I appreciated the queer relationship wasn’t exploited or one note, it was just representative of two real girls in love strugglingg with trauma. I do think this book was somewhat predictable but it didn’t ruin the enjoyment for me, i was still on the edge of my seat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Death of parent, and Abandonment

skye_era_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

I thought I fully figured out the ending 30 minutes into the book. I finished the book a few hours ago and I still don’t actually know if I was right or not lmao. I’m genuinely so confused by the ending. The characters were extremely unlikeable. I understand she just went through the most traumatic thing imaginable but oh my god. I did appreciate the sapphic rep but oh my god was it toxic as fuck. Every single relationship in this book was toxic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

_p0ssum_'s review against another edition

medium-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

3.75

Wow that is really toxic

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

smugreadsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

ginabee's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

1.0

There are two survivors after a massacre at a summer camp leaves all the other counselors dead, Sloan and Cherry. Sloan and Cherry, who are dating, care deeply for each other. Sloan struggles with not remembering the night, and begins wondering if Cherry was involved. 

This book was more a portrait of a toxic relationship than a thriller or a mystery. I found the dialog between them repetitive, and it frustrated me the only person who recognized their relationship was toxic was villanized. 

I found the representation of trauma problematic - it relied on stereotypesz. The trauma was also not being addressed in any healthy way. 

I stuck with this book because I wanted to find out what happened. The ending was ambiguous and unsatisfying. I can handle ambigous endings but I think this one missed the mark because I'm not sure what the entire book was building up to. 

To me, this book had poor character development and not much plot either. I liked the lesbian representation and Dugan describes all skin colors, including when someone is white as all the MCs were. Those are about the only 2 things I liked about the book.   

Initially I was thinking I'd recommend this book to Colleen Hoover fans,  but because of how trauma is depicted I don't think I'll be recommending it to anyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Murder

thenovelbookshelf's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

The Last Girls Standing pays homage to Friday the 13th and the extreme climate change movement in this slasher thriller.
  
While it's an odd combination, this book mainly focuses on Sloan, who lost her memory of that awful day and her girlfriend and fellow massacre survivor, Cherry, as Sloan attempts to remember what happened through hypnosis. 
  
As the story goes on, the plot twists so slightly that you will feel like you are starting to question what is happening with the character's motives and what actually happened during the massacre. 
  
This is a very thrilling and compelling read, the ending is rushed, confusing, and abrupt but leaves an opening for a sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Blood, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship