Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Resort

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

raindrops333's review

challenging dark mysterious slow-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

2.0

This book started ok, then out of nowhere does a twist that really had no business being there.

It's like introducing a new character on the last episode of a show and you find out it was the main character all along. No red herrings, nothing, incongruent story stitching because you don't hear that voice until the epilogue. And the reasons were flimsy at best, you don't find out much about why. The other "secrets" were ridiculous and page fillers.

The original rating I had for it was a 3, but that epilogue dropped it to a 2. Really?

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amanda_reads89's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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minimicropup's review against another edition

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3.5

This annoyed me…why did I like it?! I’m glad I stuck it out but struggled with the way it was told.

Energy: Spiteful. Confounded. Secretive.
Scene: 🇹🇭 Set on the (fictional) island of Koh Sang, Thailand
Perspective: We follow two main characters, both in their twenties. One is an American with a negative reputation who moved to Thailand and became a diving instructor. The other is an aspiring American journalist working as a travel influencer on Instagram. Each chapter alternates between their perspectives.

🐕 Howls: The overly detailed writing style that didn’t contribute much to the story. Lack of atmosphere and culture. Ambiguous characters when the author has a specific appearance in mind. MC lying through…inner monologue?
🐩 Tail Wags: The story. The setting (in theory).

🤔 Random Thoughts:
It was too easy to confuse Brooke and Cass. They sounded the same in their text voice; audio saved me once I picked up on the nuance between the audio narrators.

Finding out a character was dishonest for most of the book was puzzling. We mostly get detailed inner monologues, so why would she think and overanalyze so deceitfully?

The setting was unique but underwhelming. It is not a luxury resort but more of a hostel, which I prefer, but it lacked atmosphere and took awhile to figure that out (it could have been any tropical island). I get the main characters were American, but the setting wasn’t. It was so absent of any cultural authenticity of Thailand.

The narrative pace is slow; it sometimes felt like the story unfolded in real-time. I love that, but the present tense narration made all the mundane day-to-day details seem overly dramatic and diluted the suspense because stretching in the morning had the same build-up as discovering a dead body.

The way-too-late dropping of minor but key details like character or setting specifics (appearance or an off-resort bar…) killed my mind-eye imaginings. It was so frustrating that I started ignoring what the author said about the characters’ appearance and setting later in the book.

Was there even a single Thai character in this book? Is that realistic? I have no idea, but it seemed weird.

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🎬 Tale-Telling: YA style direct and simplistic. Verbose with lots of spoon-feeding and handholding.
🤓 Reader Role: Deep in the MCs’ minds, overhearing all their thoughts, reflections, and vague scheming as they go about their days, but not getting much context.
🗺️ World-Building: Detailed, but it didn’t capture the atmosphere and unique setting.
🔥 Fuel: Why did our main characters choose to stay on this island? What are their secrets? What are the guests’ secrets? How do they all connect? Who is killing staff on the island? Will our main characters survive? Who can they trust?
📖 Cred: Suspended disbelief, plausible-ish
🚙 Journey: Week-long vacay on a tropical island. Starts fun but soon becomes claustrophobic. Looking forward to going home.

Mood Reading Match-Up:
-White sand. Waves rolling in. Sour bar. Ocean salt. Grilled seafood. Suiting up with diving equipment.
-Not-all-is-as-it-seems characters lying and scheming
-Contemporary fiction about ex-pat island life in a hostel-style resort with a of thriller and YA writing style mash-up

Content Heads-Up: Death, dead body. Alcohol, drug use (partying, recreational). Sexual assault. Blood. Rape (on page). Mental illness (bipolar, brief). Drugging. Loss of sibling. Loss of parent. Medical (heart, brief). Adult/minor relationship (off page, mentioned). Gun violence. PTSD. Panic attack. Sexual harassment. False accusations.

Rep: White, somewhat ambiguous British and American. Swedish, Laotian, and Israeli peripheral characters. Heterosexual. Bisexual. Lesbian. Cisgender.

📚 Format: Everand Audio

My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

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hellokaley's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-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

2.5

A thriller has to be really great for me to love it and I just wasn’t a big fan of this one. The beginning was really slow and things picked up at about 65%. There are a lot of characters and there wasn’t anything specifically interesting about any of them which made the story a little hard to follow- “which one is Doug? Neil? Logan?”

As someone who traveled to Thailand years ago and attended a full moon party, some of the scenes felt nostalgic to me, but that’s really all I enjoyed.

I personally prefer thrillers where I have an idea of what’s going on (even when my idea is misguided and will end up with a twist in the end), rather than the whole story being an unknown. I felt like the whole first half of the book had chapters that ended with “but they don’t know about my past” or “I have been lying all along”. And the constant whodunit just got a little old.

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gmkailyn24's review

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medium-paced

3.5

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therealataylor's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

1.0

The best part of this book was the dust jacket. The writing itself leaned into telling rather than showing, which I may have been ever to look past (as an avid consumer of trash) but HOLY problematic story lines.

The way sexual assault was addressed was, in particular, disappointing because it leaned into so many of the worst myths. Creepy Daniel who fled the UK after being charged with assault was actually just a fun guy whose ex girlfriend made a false report? Brooke’s sole focus in life has been to hunt down one of the peripheral witnesses of the aftermath to of her sexual assault rather than hold the perpetrator accountable? Best friend Greta actually abducted her partner Alice who was her high school student? Sweet Neil is a charming sociopath?… maybe MAYBE parts of this could be carried off if it was executed well but there was almost no character foreshadowing to suggest that either Neil or Greta were even potentially responsible for the murders throughout the book. for. Over all it leaned far too heavily into trite representations of angry women ‘victims’ seeking revenge or lying to connect characters and tie up loose ends.

There is also an uncomfortable portrayal of Thai folks in the book (where the white narrator describes their English as incomprehensible).

Not to mention everyone is quick to blame the Thai mafia for murders throughout the book and utilize the corruption in the police force to cover up their crimes.

I don’t remember the last time I have something a 1 star review but this has been cathartic.

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soobooksalot's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

Thailand. Two women. Twists upon twists.
This is The Resort by Sara Ochs.
Cass has lived in the island of Koh Sang for two years - she works as a divemaster and is recently engaged.
Brooke is a travel blogger, well-known on Instagram for her gorgeous photos and location recommendations.
Both are on the island to escape pasts they couldn't shed.
Suspicious deaths have been taking place on Koh Sang, making for the ultimate "locked island" mystery. Chapters alternate between Cass and Brooke, slowly peeling back each woman's story with tons of reveals.
This was a fun and satisfying thriller, perfect for a summer or travel read.
Recommended!

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