Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan

11 reviews

tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

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.

---

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

creolelitbelle's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Very unsettling. Everything from what happened at the camp to events after with Sloan trying to cope in the aftermath was really screwed up. Sloan's mental state and her interactions with those around her made me uncomfortable in a way only a well done slasher that's also worked into a psychological thriller can. Unreliable narrator with missing memories who has an unstable grip on reality and uncertainty of who she can trust. The answers Sloan begs for are not even found by the end... Or are they? 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death

sonygaystation's review against another edition

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 😭)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Stalking, and Death of parent

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

---

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

moreadsnrambles's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

islandbookwyrm's review against another edition

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment

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.

---

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

tofugal's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I’m a fan of Jennifer Dugan’s YA and adult romance novels, and I loved the premise. Unfortunately, the book didn’t measure up to my expectations. I was hoping for a sapphic spin on the Christopher Pike teen horror books I grew up loving. At the very least, I thought we’d eventually get more glimpses of the campground slaughter scattered throughout as Sloan unraveled the mystery. 

 

Instead, it hyperfocused on Sloan and Cherry’s toxic, codependent relationship and Sloan’s rapidly declining mental health. Both were frustrating to read about. 

 

This not a thrills and chills book. This is a mess with your mind book. 

 

Perhaps my disappointment was my own fault. While the title and cover both scream “horror” the book is correctly advertised as a YA psychological thriller. 

 

Part of the problem was that the most interesting part of the story happened before the book started. And since the Sloan had no memory of the events, I was robbed of what drew me to the book in the first place. 

 

I considered giving up several times, but like Sloan, I wanted answers. Heck, I needed answers. After slogging through Sloan’s trauma and screwed up romance, I deserved answers. 

 

There were no answers. The ending was WTF, and not in a good way. And as if that wasn’t irksome enough, this book also checks all three boxes of my least favorite lesbian cliché that has been overdone to death. 

 

Jennifer Dugan is a talented writer, but this wasn’t the right story for me. I’ll stick to her romances from now on. If you’re looking for a gay Gone Girl, however, this book might be for you. 

 

I received an advanced copy from the publisher and am voluntarily leaving this review.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

getlitwithamy_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

First off, thank you NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was very excited about this book since it features a summer camp mass murder. Not to mention that the cover is hauntingly beautiful. There was so much potential and it was such a great concept, but THE LAST GIRLS STANDING missed the mark plenty of times. 

 

The beginning definitely had me curious, but on the first few pages, it felt too info-dumpy. There were things about Sloan's life that could have been mentioned later in the story. 

 

My main concern with the book is that it was very repetitive.

The "What are you talking about?" that Cherry would constantly say got tiring after a while.

I also believed that the idea of Cherry possibly being involved would have been so much more significant if it were mentioned later in the story and wasn't even mentioned in the summary of the book. It would have made such a great potential plot twist/train of thought for Sloan to consider. 

 

I also felt the reveal of the murderers' intentions to be rushed. Dugan did a decent job inserting information bit by bit as the plot progressed, but the overall reveal felt so sudden. That plus the rushed ending ruined it for me. 

 

Sloan's decline at the end to the point where she fell into the prophecy of the cult because she saw a rabbit after killing Cherry didn't make *that* much sense besides the fact that she just became psychotic.

I wasn't a big fan of this, especially since it undermines the C-PTSD that Sloan was experiencing.

Instead of actively trying to get better after finding out the cult's final ritual, her becoming wrapped in the conspiracy wasn't the best move.

Regardless of how Sloan reacted, I wish there was a chapter following the events where Sloan tries to regain her life again. This usually happens in thrillers/horrors, but the ending was cut off in a way that was so anticlimactic. 

 

The reason why I rounded it up to 3 ⭐️ instead of 2.5-2.75 is because Jennifer Dugan did a good job of making me want to find out what happened. Sloan's progress in trying to regain her memories raised the stakes despite the issues I mentioned before. She also did a fair job of portraying trauma bonding and toxic relationships, as they are big parts of the book. 

 

Overall, THE LAST GIRLS STANDING unfortunately did not meet my expectations. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Stalking