Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Change by Kirsten Miller

58 reviews

lowkeymarie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

Holy shit, this was a hell of a ride! Great characters, a wicked sense of humor, and simmering with righteous feminine rage.

Dinged it slightly for some awkward time jumps that slightly confused my dumb ass. 😅 But definitely one of my faves I've read so far this year!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Eating disorder

deezy's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death, Gaslighting, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Misogyny, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

Moderate: Murder

heather_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Addiction, Child death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Trafficking, Car accident, Death, and Drug use

meliroo's review against another edition

dark mysterious

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Trafficking, Drug use, Death, Gore, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Addiction, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Rape, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, and Self harm

shanchat's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Child death, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexism, Pedophilia, Miscarriage, Death, Rape, Misogyny, Grief, Drug use, Trafficking, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Child death, Car accident, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, and Child abuse

casreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

3.0

This book promised magic, mystery, and a feminist revenge fantasy, but really only delivered on the last one. The women had powers, but they were kind of vague. Nessa's ghost-seeing abilities were the most developed. Harriet was a caricature of a hedge witch, and Jo's powers were the least developed. She was strong and her hands got hot? Oook. There were ghosts, but they were just sort of there. There was a mystery, but it it wasn't investigated methodically with clues laid out - they just sort of stumbled across things. I did like how almost every woman in the book got a fleshed out backstory, and it was very cathartic to see all the disgusting men in their lives get what was coming to them. It was entertaining, but ultimately kind of a let down. I don't think the full potential of the premise was realized.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Violence, Child death, and Death

libertyreads789's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

3.25

Before I get into the review, I want to say a quick thank you to NetGalley and the publishers over at William Morrow & Company for letting me access this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Change is an Adult Fantasy/Mystery/Thriller about a group of women in Mattauk who have discovered magical abilities as a part of their midlife crisis. Those abilities end up putting them on a collision course with the evil that lives in their wealthy beach town. I’ve seen this pitched as Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick. The Change is out on May 3rd and is available for pre-order now.

There was so much in this story to love and, yet, it fell short for me. I love this beachfront town and all of the wealthy (and not so wealthy) people who live and work there. At first this story really gave me Revenge vibes which I loved and wanted more of. But the story focuses less on the rich people in town and more on the lives of the people who also live and work in this town and have to make it work. There is an ensemble cast of characters who all have their parts to play in this story. My favorite character is probably Jo because she seems the most well rounded character in the story. I feel like I know her a lot better than I know other characters. I love the image of strong women wanting to take back their town after disaster strikes and wanting to prove that women belong here just as much as the men do.

But where this powerful feminist message got lost for me was that it was constantly putting the men down in the first half of the novel. As we learned in the 2010s, that’s not how actual feminism works. Feminist ideology is not about hating men. I also didn’t love the messaging that came across as the women discovered this horrific event. It was seen as: of course this happened. Of course a woman was sexually assaulted and murdered. They’re a woman in a world of men. It was gross and it severely dialed down the horror of seeing what happened to this character. Also, I didn’t appreciate that most of the villains in this story were villains who might one day give a speech outlining all their evil plans while twirling their mustache. Their actions alone would have made me hate them. I don’t then need the author to add another level of evil behavior to make sure I know who’s the bad guy.

The things I enjoyed and really wanted more of were the magic elements and the women pulling together to take care of business. I loved that this was a magical realism story while also having a mystery/thriller element. I love the way the genres were mashed together. But I just found this a little heavy handed.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Stalking, Sexual violence, Murder, Gaslighting, Rape, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Eating disorder, Death, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, and Addiction

deanis23's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

I loved it! Great spin on women's intuition. Every woman will see herself in Harriet, Jo or Nessa.

I definitely got the pervert island (Epstein/Maxwell) vibe and it quickly drew me in. Every mother with a daughter understands the fear and need to constantly protect our littles from the pervs (and the manipulative "helpers") of the world and this book gave us a satisfying revenge.

Hope this turns into a book series, it would be an auto-buy for me!

* I received an arc after winning a Goodreads giveaway. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Police brutality, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Child abuse, Child death, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Murder, Pedophilia, Death, Kidnapping, and Rape