Reviews

All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham

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argal14'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? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

fionaguiley's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I liked this book in the same way that I enjoy my guilty pleasure shows - I had to keep consuming it, but I wouldn’t say it’s a super high-quality plot. First of all, the author does one of my pet peeves, idk what to call it but basically when they’re like:

It was a quiet night.
Almost too quiet.

It drives me crazy, like okay I get it, I’m supposed to be on edge here. It’s the same laziness of putting feel-good music on a tv show when you’re supposed to be happy, and sad music for the sad parts, etc. I guess it works but it just bugs me in books for some reason, so eye roll-inducing.
Anyway. There are some big parts of this book that just came together too easily for me. I can’t say what the main resolution that bugged me is without turning on the spoiler tag, but it was just too convenient. It was a plot device that you could basically use in any story, not unique to this one.
All that being said, I ended up carrying my kindle around with me and reading it more and more often because I had to know how it all turned out. It also has some good messages about the perception of mothers/women, and the weirdness of true crime fanatics. This is an easy and pleasurable read, but not one I would necessarily submit for any awards.