Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

35 reviews

bootsmom3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, and Terminal illness

marlireads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No

3.75

The spooky, paranormal vibes in this are really good. They really did it for me. I was actually too scared to read this at night. The mystery, wasn't as shocking and revelatory as I wanted it to be, but it was still good. The story itself was a bit repetitve because of the two alternating timelines, the "this-happened-back-in-the-day-and-it's-happening-again-in-present-day" plotline. But the element I liked most was the portrayal of the fear of being a woman. What happened in this book is still the most real fear I, and every woman, has on a day-to-day basis. I think about these fears at least weekly and that's fucked up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Cancer, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, and Grief

taelights's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

I loved this book so much. Both Viv and Carly's POVs held my interest throughout and I enjoyed seeing the connections between their stories. Listening to them piece together the same basic mystery but at different times and using different clues was actually really interesting! It never made me bored or felt repetitive at all. Also this book had so many twists I didn't see coming. 

Also the mix between mystery, crime thriller, and supernatural horror was perfect. The author did an amazing job writing all of these elements, especially the creepy spooky ones. Adding in ghosts just added to the story and setting so well. 

The only thing I didn't like was one element of the ending.

I was disappointed with Viv's ending. I don't think she should have confessed. Between her confessing and having cancer I thought her being revealed as alive was pointless. It's like oh cool this character I got attached to but thought was dead is actually alive! Yay! Oh wait… she's now either going to die soon from cancer or rot in prision for the rest of her life when she literally could and should have kept getting away with this crime.

But overall this was a very amazing read that I deeply enjoyed! I can't wait to check out more books by Simone St. James now as I definitely loved her writing style in this book. 

Edit:  I just looked up the author and saw she's cis het so it kind of makes me uncomfortable and not like her because she used lesbian slurs in her writing. Using the word dyke in her writing was unnecessary to begin with but knowing she's heterosexual and using it leaves a bit of a nasty taste in my mouth. I'll still read Book of Cold Cases through the library but I'm glad I didn't pick it as my BOTM like I almost did because I won't be financially supporting her. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Homophobic and lesphobic slurs written by a cis het author.

prakriti_archit's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

This was an incredible book. It has been a while since I sacrificed sleep to binge read a book, but that's exactly what I did with this one. I couldn't put it down. I'm tempted to give it five stars, but i need to really reserve those. This was brilliantly spooky, but not too cliché. I've always loved the idea of spooky motels mostly because of the show Supernatural and also Hotel California, but I hadn't found a book/show that perfectly filled the void in my heart for spooky motels, but this did it for me. The characters are rich, but I do wish she explained all their mysteries

(like Heather and her jacket situation)

. But their conversations were riveting, the mystery was slow burning but fast paced at the same time, and the two entwining stories were spliced at perfect points to give you the whole picture, but still keep you guessing. Really well done book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Sexism, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

brookey8888's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I’m not going to lie this starts out slow, but then you want to know what’s going on. The thing I liked best about this was probably the commentary on women, and women being murdered. I also liked the ghostly vibes. I really liked both Viv and carly oh also heather. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

bookish_venus's review

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

It's a horror book but that is not something quite evident from the blurb, at least that was the case for me. It is gripping. Initially, I find all the ghosts and paranormal activities creepy and I was scared but soon that was not the case.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Rape, Sexism, Blood, and Death of parent

Paranormal activities, ghosts, haunted motel

dannybrown59's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

I really liked this book. I loved how it went between what happened with Viv and Carly investigating almost the same thing. They were a lot a like and had never even met. There were so many twists and turns in this. As I read it just kept getting more interesting. I didn't think either of the plot twists were all that shocking though but still good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder

book_banter's review

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

3.5 stars. I enjoyed the characters and the setting but I found that things (trying not to be spoilery) were introduced early so it wasn’t as spooky as it could have been. I also guessed the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Murder

Minor: Homophobia

wordwilderness's review

dark mysterious 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

wlarianna's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking and Murder

Moderate: Rape and Sexism