Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

They'll Never Catch Us by Jessica Goodman

5 reviews

aformeracceleratedreader's review

dark reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

Pretty solid story, but I didn't LOVE it. I liked seeing how the sisters relationship grew and changed. I knew a bunch of people who were in crosscountry so that was pretty cool to read a story centered around a sport people don't really focus on. I think the very end was pretty satisfying. Wish Noah would've faced more consequences tho.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Abortion, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Eating disorder, Medical content, Murder, Addiction, Child death, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

yananhai's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.0

something doesn't add up for me... if Raven just dropped Mila down and left her there dead, why was there a blood trail? why did Ellie and Noah not find her body when they looked in the pit later in the day? why was there a blanket covering her body? 
just for these questions I'm gonna tale off one star, so overall 3 ⭐

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Bullying, Death, Infidelity, Murder, Abortion, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Drug use

bethany_grace's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

RAVEN???!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexism, Medical content, Bullying, Child death, Gore, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Murder

emily_mh's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

This was such an improvement from They Wish They Were Us, which aside from problematic books I read, was probably the worst book of 2021 for me. They’ll Never Catch Us was more enjoyable, the message on misogyny and sexism shone through, and the conclusion was much better. I also liked how Goodman didn’t sanitise how teenagers act. I did have three major criticisms, though. The first is that Ellie and Stella’s voices were incredibly similar. I sometimes had to check halfway through a chapter whose perspective I was reading from. The second is that the inciting incident didn’t happen until 37% through the book, so it was quite a slow start. The third is spoilery:

essentially, I wished the cold cases played a bigger part in the mystery. Because they were already technically solved before the book began, I would have liked a more definitive statement that X person definitely did do Y but the police screwed it up, rather than X person probably did Y but the police screwed it up.

Regardless of these criticisms, this book has shown me that They Wish They Were Us was probably a one-off bad book, so I’m interested in what Goodman writes next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Murder, Child death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Infidelity

Moderate: Cursing, Addiction, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, and Drug abuse

Minor: Bullying, Sexual assault, Ableism, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Blood, Alcohol, Mental illness, Racism, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Grief, and Body shaming

betweentheshelves's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

The sister relationship dynamics is probably the best thing about this book. The thriller/mystery lacked a little for me, as I mostly guessed what was going to happen from the beginnig. This would definitely be a good read-a-like for those who like One of Us Is Lying, though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Death, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Emotional abuse