Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

12 reviews

tlaynejones's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This is a cute twisty contemporary murder mystery. There is a bit of a book within a book plot which adds an extra layer of interest, and I enjoyed the idea of the book (that I’m reading) being critiqued chapter by chapter as a literary device. This is great for when you want something that will engage you and entertain you without too much effort. It’s not gory, and wasn’t particularly dark (considering it’s a murder mystery) in tone. There were a few chuckles; I figured out the murderer early on, but not how the murderer actually did the murder-y things, so the ending was still a good result. The character development and relationships aren’t very fleshed out, and one of the characters was so annoying, but I think that’s sort of the nature of this style/genre. No queer rep.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Racism, Vomit, Murder, Physical abuse, and Classism

Minor: Sexual violence, Torture, and Pandemic/Epidemic

justagir1's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Toxic friendship, Violence, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: Gaslighting, Stalking, and Gun violence

Minor: Sexual content, Abandonment, Blood, Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Grief, and Sexual assault

heidipretzel's review

mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Child abuse, Cursing, and Medical content

Minor: Blood and Gun violence

tabookish's review against another edition

mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Stalking, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Child abuse, Death, Racism, and Sexual content

arkwen452's review

challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

The lady in the library was an interesting read. I gave it the rating that I did, because in my opinion, it is a slow paced book. There is a position between a story within a story with a story. The writer writes the book the lady in the library, and it's about a scholarship student in Boston from Australia, writing a novel but lacking inspiration. However, screen runs out in the library causes a friendship to form between four occupants, including our self. That begins the story or the first story the story. We follow Freddy as she grows closer to the other three individuals and romantically becomes involved with Kane. Kane has various secrets in his past , that as a story progresses, paints him as the obvious suspect. The only reason that Kane is not immediately pulled by the police is Fred's belief in his innocence and canes determined conviction to find out who's behind the set up and not be convicted again. Only the outer skirts of this in or in our story there is this "" beta, reader, or editor, that is reading the story for the , inner story author Hannah. It isn't until about 50% into the book that readers discover that there are two stories being told consecutively. The beta reader, or I saw him as an editor. Leo is not who he is pretending to be. So, as the reader is following one mystery, another mystery unravel in the form of Leo's identity, and , his actions as they point to more vivid and gruesome details. I think this book was OK overall. It struggled to come together for me in the beginning, and some of the humor felt stale, but I did enjoy following Freddy and Kane on their seemingly hopeless effort to clear his name. I was trying to hold out hope that there wouldn't be a cliché that he was lying to her the whole time, and luckily things turn out different than , one might expect. There were a lot of things or elements in the story that I found predictable and made notes as I was reading of these things, and they turned out to be true. I think I would recommend this book to other mystery readers if they two were. Just so they could see the parallels of the stories being interconnected like a spiderweb, because the small details in the story that involves Freddy they linked with the bigger details of Hannah, the inner writer, and the " beta reader", Leo.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Stalking

regaliaofchaos's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Death, and Stalking

Moderate: Sexual assault, Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Drug abuse, and Blood

alicelalicon's review

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

snhmyers's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book drew me in just by the first sentence of the summary. It felt fast paced at the beginning, somewhat slower in the middle, and it picked up again near the end. I LOVED the creative point of views that the author used! Wonderful book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Death, Child abuse, and Stalking

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, and Sexual assault

originally_olivia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This mystery kept me guessing until the last moment! So many misleads, a really interesting format, and fantastic characters.

I was convinced it was Leo who was the killer. Sending Freddy those anonymous gifts, being at the library that day, running by Boos crime scene, so I was definitely disappointed by the outcome. I wanted the real Leo to know how the author really saw him and that she knew all along. But I guess that would’ve given him the attention he so desperately wanted.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Death, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Gore, Violence, and Murder

2122's review against another edition

mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

I really really enjoyed this! I read it for my book club and it kept us hooked the whole way through mainly because we had no idea where the story was going and who was responsible for all this chaos. It was quite fast paced and easy to read with chapters being only a few pages. 

I think the ending was pretty packed together but it would’ve been nice if we had a few hints along the way. I’m not sure if this is done on purpose because this story is essentially a manuscript. Not sure about the very end of the book because I’m pretty sure this is stand alone but I guess we make our own assumptions. At first it was confusing with what was going on with the emails and the actual story but I think it was cool. Wish we could’ve gotten a bit more out of it. Overall, I really enjoyed it but that was because I could speculate with others. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Violence, Medical content, and Stalking

Moderate: Drug use, Incest, Addiction, Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, and Alcohol