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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was... fine? I felt like huge swaths of it could have done with an edit, there'd be two pages where nothing would really advance or happen, it just felt like filler.
I liked having it so female-centric - all the narrators are women, with the exception of I think one chapter. The men in this basically just all suck, so it scores one for realism. (This is a joke, men; some of you are ok).
It was an easy read (not the subject matter, but the style) - would be perfs to burn through on holiday.
I liked having it so female-centric - all the narrators are women, with the exception of I think one chapter. The men in this basically just all suck, so it scores one for realism. (This is a joke, men; some of you are ok).
It was an easy read (not the subject matter, but the style) - would be perfs to burn through on holiday.
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I'm stunned that this novel is rated below a 4 here on Goodreads. Anatomy of a Scandal has definitely struck a chord with me. This book provides an intimate portrait of the hoops sexual assault victims have to go through in pursuit of justice that is oh so elusive.
There's plenty of internal monologue here, and I got crisp pictures of the persuasions and reasonings of the main characters. Rape is a touchy subject and in my opinion, this book tackled this in an accessible manner. Had it been more in depth, I don't think I could've finished this because I would have been too emotional. Already, a couple of scenes made me weep and pause reading altogether.
I like how flawed the characters are in this book. The trauma, guilt and strife that loom over the victims and the people with knowledge of the crime committed were explored. There's plenty of denial and toxic coping mechanisms depicted. We are human beings after all and a tragic life experience scars us in different ways and some of us never ever heal. There is also a huge spotlight directed at our society because yeah, we are very far from eliminating sex crimes and prosecuting all the guilty.
I have read the trade paperback while listening to the audiobook. The audiobook had a full cast which is always welcome. Sarah Vaughan wrote a good one and I may actually watch the Netflix ada
There's plenty of internal monologue here, and I got crisp pictures of the persuasions and reasonings of the main characters. Rape is a touchy subject and in my opinion, this book tackled this in an accessible manner. Had it been more in depth, I don't think I could've finished this because I would have been too emotional. Already, a couple of scenes made me weep and pause reading altogether.
I like how flawed the characters are in this book. The trauma, guilt and strife that loom over the victims and the people with knowledge of the crime committed were explored. There's plenty of denial and toxic coping mechanisms depicted. We are human beings after all and a tragic life experience scars us in different ways and some of us never ever heal. There is also a huge spotlight directed at our society because yeah, we are very far from eliminating sex crimes and prosecuting all the guilty.
I have read the trade paperback while listening to the audiobook. The audiobook had a full cast which is always welcome. Sarah Vaughan wrote a good one and I may actually watch the Netflix ada
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not my kind of book, I mostly reached for it because it’s been sitting on my shelf for over a year, and I felt in the mood for some drama and suspense.
The writing was not for me. Very formal, at times escalating into clinical, it didn’t help to draw me into the story at all. Also, one of my pet peeves is the use of “for” as “because”, and let me tell you that at one point it was used 5 times in one page. Not a fan.
The multiple character POVs were slightly confusing in the beginning, and made me regret ever picking up this book. The suspense was barely there, and the plot took forever to start. I only got interested at about 200 pages in.
The setup with Holly/Kate was long and painful and, up until the reveal, very boring. That being said, I loved Kate, and I think I loved her so much because we got to see who she was as Holly. So you could say it was an excellent idea, but terrible execution that dragged on too much.
Sophie annoyed me like nothing else, though I was happy for her (barely mentioned, off-page) growth at the end. She was very flaky as a character, and had absolutely no backbone.
The open ending also didn’t do it for me. We spend 400 pages trying to indict James, fail, try again, and don’t get to see the results. He could go to jail, or he could charm the jury and get off. I wanted a solid conclusion after all this reading.
Overall, entertaining, but go read something else.
The writing was not for me. Very formal, at times escalating into clinical, it didn’t help to draw me into the story at all. Also, one of my pet peeves is the use of “for” as “because”, and let me tell you that at one point it was used 5 times in one page. Not a fan.
The multiple character POVs were slightly confusing in the beginning, and made me regret ever picking up this book. The suspense was barely there, and the plot took forever to start. I only got interested at about 200 pages in.
The setup with Holly/Kate was long and painful and, up until the reveal, very boring. That being said, I loved Kate, and I think I loved her so much because we got to see who she was as Holly. So you could say it was an excellent idea, but terrible execution that dragged on too much.
Sophie annoyed me like nothing else, though I was happy for her (barely mentioned, off-page) growth at the end. She was very flaky as a character, and had absolutely no backbone.
The open ending also didn’t do it for me. We spend 400 pages trying to indict James, fail, try again, and don’t get to see the results. He could go to jail, or he could charm the jury and get off. I wanted a solid conclusion after all this reading.
Overall, entertaining, but go read something else.
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
relaxing
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes