Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

29 reviews

pamshenanigans's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

THIS BOOK. YO. What a fucking trip. Idk what to feel about the very last plot twist because on one hand, I was completely mindblown and thought the ending was a brilliant and brutal twist, but on the other hand, I think the last plot twist was an overkill?

Like if it ended in the 2nd to the last plot twist, it would have been perfect FOR ME.

Before picking this up know that it's a really slow-paced thriller and has some supernatural elements to it. I think this is also best consumed by listening to the audiobook.

Trigger/Content Warnings: manipulation, murder, arson, death of family members

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horrorghoul's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

TW: Drug use, animal dying (descriptive scenes), cheating spouse, death of parents, murder,

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book: Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend, but she also just happens to be married to David. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife, but then why is David so controlling, and why is Adele so scared of him?As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong, but Louise can’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets.
Release Date: January 31st, 2017
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pages: 307
Rating: 3.5 ⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

What I Liked:
• Fast paced book
• You want to know what's going to happen

What I Didn't Like:
• I don't understand the point of breaking the book up with "Part one, part two... Etc..."
• The direction of this book
• The ending
• All the fucking wine! So many mentions!

Overall Thoughts: Talk about a book that can evoke do many different emotions in only 300 pages. On one hand you're cheering for Louise at the beginning to hating her by the end (she's honestly a shit person who seems to ditch her child even after he's been gone for a month) to Adele who you wonder what shit she's been through herself and why she's such an obsessive crazy bitch. By the ending you just feel bad that she got sucked into this mess.
The beginning of the book you fucking hate hate and hate David by the ending you want to hug him.

Have you every seen Hannibal Holocaust? So the story goes that the people making the film wanted to create something to shock people so badly. They added terrible scenes of animal killings as well as rape scenes. That's how I felt about this book. The author changes the book from a psychological thriller to a science fiction book. By the last few pages your maybe remembering this happening somewhere before but in a different way.... There's a movie starring Kate Hudson that's called The Skeleton Key; in that movie they use Hoodoo to switch bodies and keep body jumping. Oh then that final twist I didn't see coming but it didn't feel like it added anything. The way it's all described from Adele and David's pov it all seens so rushed and random. The way they both described Rob didn't lead anyone to think he loved David or even liked him. There's no way you woukd habe thought that. Plus the notebook left behind comes off like he's in Lust of Adele, but Louise mentioned that pages were torn out, so perhaps Adele aka Rob removed them so she didn't know. Dude that ending though just seemed so added at last minute. I looked back on the book and he just talks shit about him and doesn't even try to stick around when David came to the clinic to see Adele.

Final Thoughts: That ending thought it was going to make me love this book but nope.

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bookishandlegal's review against another edition

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

3.5

This book was super gripping and I was intrigued the whole time. The buildup to the end was good and kept me engaged throughout. The story line was interesting and piecing together what was happening through alternating POVs between the two main characters and between the past and present worked really well. One big thing that I didn’t like was the constant emphasis and shaming over Louise’s weight. She’s described around a size 12, probably, which is a very average size but is constantly referred to as fat and heavy and talked about how much better she’ll look when she’s lost a few pounds. None of this set right with me and it seemed wholly unnecessary. There was also a few graphic instances of animal abuse that seemed totally unnecessary. 

I also didn’t really care for the ending. It honestly just didn’t make sense. I know very little/almost nothing about lucid dreaming but having to suspend belief and buy that a person switched bodies with two different people throughout their lifetime by lucid dreaming was too much for me. I somewhat enjoyed the twist that Adele had really been Rob the whole time, but it’s all just a bit too much for me to buy and made the book seem kinda hookey and idk, just weird. Maybe I’m totally missing something with lucid dreaming but this just seemed too far fetched for me

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bookswithmybulldog's review against another edition

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dark 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

4.0


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lilifane's review against another edition

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

5.0

What the f*** did I just read?!?!?
I'm actually still hysterically laughing because of the ending. It's not that often that an ending actually gets me. 
First I thought this would be a regular domestic thriller and I don't really like them that much. The whole cheating plot just annoyed me. But I loved the different perspectives and the feeling that there is something off. And then things got interesting when an element was introduced, I wasn't expecting. Luckily I love these kind of elements in books. When I got the vague idea what the title refers to at about 50% of the book, I was all invested. Hahaha, little did I know then. It blew my mind when I realised what the title actually means. And then again at the very end when I realised what it ACTUALLY actually means. I just think it's genius. The way everything is plotted and fits perfectly together at the end. That's my favourite thing in books. I love love LOVE how subtle all the hints were that you actually could never guess the ending but once you know it you see all those details flashing before your eyes. ;)
This book is definitely one of my all time favourites now. 

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thebookishsnow's review against another edition

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

3.5


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madelonpaige's review against another edition

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

3.75


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regulardragon's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

3.0

 This book is absolute nonsense, everybody is ridiculous and could use an extra brain cell (except maybe, Adele, who seems to have a galaxy brain take on life). The ending is so ludicrous it made me laugh out loud.

I did have fun reading, though, I guess that's all you can ask. 

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augustolive's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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