Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Särmikäs Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

193 reviews

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

Are you freaking kidding me?? 
I know realistic endings are needed but omg…endings like these make me want to scream! 
The build up just for the itch not to get scratched. Don’t get me wrong, this book is sooo disturbing but it kept my hooked and is such a page turner and I like the dual pov (although the info provided more than once wasn’t needed). I’d say I enjoyed it to an extent, but I genuinely hated the turn out and people are so sick. Neither CG and PG got what they deserved and I’m always going to be mad about that, like fuck off

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Oh how I wish I’d picked this up sooner.. 🙌🏽 Disturbing, harrowing + captivating, but also witty and humorous, this was an absolutely unputdownable book that I devoured in two sittings. This was my first read by Nugent but it definitely won’t be my last!!

With intriguing, complex characters, a quirky and unique plot + some truly shocking twists, this was an incredibly well crafted, engaging and fast paced read. There were so many chilling components to this book but even the very dark aspects of the plot were explored in a sensitive manner. 

Sally’s character was expertly curated: she was quirky + eccentric, exasperating + frustrating but also quirky + loveable with a dark sense of humour and as the story progresses we slowly begin to be able to piece together why she is the way she is. Her journey of self discovery + growth was compelling and heartwarming. 

If you liked the characterisation in Eleanor Oliphant and/or The Maid you’ll love Sally! I’ve seen this story described as a combination between the two mixed with ROOM + I’d have to agree, although it’s even darker and left me completely speechless. 

This will not be everyone’s cup of tea but I wholeheartedly recommend it + I also highly recommend going in blind!! (though maybe do check cw’s) 🙌🏽

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dark tense
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Thoroughly enjoyed. The characters are diverse and well written and beautifully developed. I really enjoyed the twists and turns of the book and was desperate to get to the end and know it all. Unfortunately the last couple of chapters knocked a fifth star off for me, it felt rushed and betrayed the fantastic character development we'd seen throughout the book, finished feeling a bit deflated after the journey I'd been on with the protagonist. Still a good read and would recommend. Content warning for child abuse, violence, sexual violence, gaslighting.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes

This was a highly anticipated read, & it exceeded my expectations!

𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 :
- Alice Feeney
- Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth 
- Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
- Character driven stories
- dark themes 
- dual pov
- neurodivergent main character

𝙈𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 :
Nugent writes with exactly the right tone - painting a picture of darkness & humour, despair & hope, of empathy & optimism. The plot was intricate, with well placed twists.

Despite her tragic upbringing & blunt exterior, Sally manages to become a resilient, capable, quirky adult. She is a character you can’t help but root for.

The audiobook was impeccable. Sally’s point of view was narrated perfectly & the addition of the interview audio recordings were so authentic.

While the ending was a tiny bit underwhelming, Sally & her story deserve 5 stars, one of my most memorable reads of the year. I’ll be thinking about Sally and her strangeness for a long time. 

**the topics discussed in this book are heavy - I definitely recommend checking trigger warnings. 

Thank you @netgally for the opportunity to read this book for the paperback rerelease!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark sad 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: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I found this book a real page-turner. It dealt with some tawdry issues and wasn’t emotionally easy to read.
+ I found the MC believable; she was flawed, fallible and multidimensional 
+ the subtext of nature versus nurture was interesting 
+ the story itself was sadly credible 
- some of the more peripheral characters were less credible. Some characters really didn’t seem to serve any function and were dropped from the story for huge numbers of pages.
- I just didn’t love the ending… it all wrapped up too quickly. For example the podcaster was an interesting angle, which was then just finished very  abruptly. Amanda Herron having the last chapter seemed silly because she wasn’t a character who’d been developed. 

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