Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan

7 reviews

skye_era_books's review against another edition

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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

2.5

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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sonygaystation's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.75

I love it when women are insane!


(i do wish this book had more of the summer camp slasher vibe than it did. It was pretty focused on life after the Event, which did keep me guessing. I feel like I got no answers though and I’ve definitely read better thrillers/horror, queer books, and queer thriller/horror. But it was just unhinged enough to satisfy the insanity palette iykwim. Although the main couple were TERRIBLE together like if I had to hear them fight one more time lmao 😭 as a 29 yo gay person in a committed relationship my young besties if you fight like this I’m gonna need you to do some serious inventory on if “love” is worth it lmfao 😭)

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smugreadsbooks's review against another edition

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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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islandbookwyrm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.0


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hobbithopeful's review against another edition

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

2.0

Thank you Penguin for this ARC
A sapphic horror novel that depicts trauma in one of the worst lights I've ever seen in a book, with a depressing end message.
Sloan and Cherry are the lone survivors of a summer camp massacre. Deeply traumatized they find solace in each other, but Sloan has holes in her memories, and begins to question what really happened.
I honestly have no idea what I just read. And not in a "wow that was so fantastic and different, but in a I had no idea where any of this story was going".
I do think the premise is interesting, as well as the writing. Just like Sloan, I felt completely lost and unsure of who to trust. There are a lot of great tense moments, and so much gaslighting. I was ready to point fingers at literally everyone in this book.
I don't know Dugan's background, I don't know if she has experienced trauma and CPTSD such as Sloan has. I'm not sure if writing this in a way was cathartic for her. For me someone who suffers from CPTSD, I found this book to be an inaccurate and quite frankly offensive depiction of trauma. There is so much wrong in how this book depicts what it is like to go through trauma therapy, and how the characters react to trauma.
The end message of the story seems to be one of "you'll never recover from your trauma and instead spiral and continue hurting others". So that was great to read. Sloan just ends up cracking and killing Cherry, to what end? To show that we can't heal? To show that we will continue hurting others?

I do think the ambiguous ending hurt the book, and just further leaned into the "you won't heal from trauma" stereotype.
If you decide to read this, please check your triggers/content warnings.
Personally I didn't have a good time reading this, and wouldn't personally recommend it.
 

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herohail's review against another edition

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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? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5


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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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

3.0

The two survivors of a sleep-away camp mass killing are now in a romantic relationship. One with no memories of what happened. As she tries to unravel what happened that night, she gets deeper into a possible conspiracy going back to her birth family. 
Wow! It was a twisty book! It was also a very dark and emotional book. I didn't really like the ending, and in the end, we didn't get a lot of answers. It was an okay book. 

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