Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Two Lives of Sara by Catherine Adel West

5 reviews

moriahleigh's review

emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Cancer, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Infertility, Incest, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Rape

janelleaimi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Rape

michaelareads's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Grief, Hate crime, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Rape, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Incest, and Mental illness

books4bee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death

Moderate: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Racism, Child death, Miscarriage, Cancer, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Terminal illness, Domestic abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Rape, Vomit, and Suicidal thoughts

kristenjiannotti's review

slow-paced

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

2.5

This was a tough one to get through, and not because of the subject matter, but because I was incredibly bored for about 95% of this plot. Well, nonexistent plot.

You're following a young mother of a child she doesn't quite seem to want, but at some point in the book she does end up liking. Anyway, she's living in a boarding house with people you don't really intimately get to meet. You learn their names and maybe what they do for a living, but nothing else aside from that. You learn that Sara has some past trauma, and it is hidden for about half of the book. It takes all of about a paragraph to reveal what happened... We spend most of the book with the narrator telling herself that she is a horrible human being and doesn't deserve anything but sadness. She falls in love for about 50 pages, he dies, and then she's right back to hating herself even more. So much so that she gives up the child she had with the man she fell in love with.

I don't know what the point of this book was, I thought it was going to be a great character study about a found family and this young black woman trying to navigate life through the Civil Rights movement. I just didn't get any of that. I did tear up around 90% because I did care about Will as a character, so I gave it that extra half star. I just couldn't connect to most of the characters enough to care what happened to them. It was a shame because I was really looking forward to this. I think West definitely has potential in her writing. There were some really quotable moments, but unfortunately I was just bored most of the time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Murder, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Miscarriage