Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Agathas. Śledztwo w Castle Cove by Liz Lawson, Wiesław Marcysiak, Kathleen Glasgow

16 reviews

dblue236's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious 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

5.0

Trigger warnings: Domestic abuse, domestic violence, toxic relationships, toxic friendships, brief discussion of being unknowingly drugged.

While this book was wildly, massively unrealistic, I absolutely loved it. The entertainment value of it was off the charts, and while for the most part it was just a fun, corny murder mystery involving high school kids, it also dealt with some really heavy subject matter in a very impactful way. I had heard next to nothing about this book before I picked it up, and I'm really glad I gave it a chance because I got much more than I was expecting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Gore, and Drug use

aseel_reads's review against another edition

mysterious medium-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

2.0

The mystery was okay but god I hated the characters 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death, Death, Sexism, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent and Bullying

amberinpieces's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Classism, Domestic abuse, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Blood

Minor: Body horror, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Cursing, Grief, Stalking, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Sexual content

bailey_the_bookworm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

I enjoyed a YA book! Will wonders never cease. The story is fast-paced, well-written, and hard to put down. The class tensions of the town and high school feel archetypal without being (overly) clichéd, and the tensions between the main characters are drawn out nicely throughout the book. 

Some of the clues in the writing felt a little ham-handed (Steve! Was acting! Weird! Was Steve acting weird? Steve was acting so weird!!), but on the whole it was a really fun read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Murder, Bullying, and Car accident

spaghettii's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Definitely left the ending open for more books 👀
Shipped the main characters so hard but I'm thinking they're both straight, unfortunately. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Death, Toxic friendship, Murder, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Drug use, Grief, Child death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Stalking

mysterymom40's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Murder, and Domestic abuse

espressoreader's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol, and Stalking

Moderate: Child death and Bullying

Minor: Domestic abuse and Child abuse

kshertz's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Excellent mystery! I couldn’t guess who did it. I found the two protagonists to be fascinating and I loved them. The story makes sense and there’s so much going on that gets wrapped up beautifully. Highly recommend it as a lighter mystery to try to solve. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Murder, Violence, Body shaming, Bullying, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Death of parent, Child death, Body horror, Death, and Domestic abuse

wickedreads's review against another edition

3.5

It was fun but not super remarkable. I will be reading the second one when it comes out! Definitely gives the Veronica Mars vibes we were promised except they are truly terrible teen detectives 😂


CWings: domestic abuse, death of a friend, drugging, attempted drugging, murder, violence, cheating, misuse of authority by adults

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Murder, Violence, and Bullying

hollyk's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

I am a sucker for a multi-media story. Give me transcripts! News articles! Tweets! All of it.

This book has an engaging plot, I figured it out about 60% of the way through, but I'm here for a good time, so that sort of thing never bothers me.

Iris Adams, I love her. She is precious. She's a nerd (affectionate) who is dragged into figuring out this murder. She's tough, she's clever, and she deserves all good things.

Alice Ogilvie is a perplexing character. She grew on me, but there are definitely times where her internal monologue comes across as "grown adults writing shallow teens" which was a bit annoying. I also did not like how we barely find out where/why/how Alice just up and disappeared over the summer. It's barely a paragraph in one of the final chapters. I think Alice is better when she's with Iris, but I feel like Iris could stand on her own as a character, whereas Alice is weaker in terms of development.

Spike, Nora, and Neil were fun, but they lowkey could've been condensed into one or two people--they didn't have enough page time to shine as individuals (namely Nora and Neil).

Now, Alice is obsessed with Agatha Christie. I mean the title of the book is a reference to her. The issue I have is that Christie's works contain racism--which isn't uncommon for the time, but it is a fact that cannot be ignored (while Christie's intentions can be debated, that does not erase the fact that her books have racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, etc). The book And Then There Were None originally had the N-word in the title. I wish that this had been addressed in the book, whether in the book itself or in an author's note. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying, Classism, Grief, Infidelity, and Murder