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Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Violence, Kidnapping, Car accident
Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide
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!
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Death of parent
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Pandemic/Epidemic
Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Medical trauma
Moderate: Car accident
Minor: Homophobia, Racism
Graphic: Kidnapping
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Kidnapping
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault
Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Violence
+ 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.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Kidnapping
Moderate: Bullying, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Murder, Pregnancy
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Kidnapping, Pregnancy