Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

They'll Never Catch Us by Jessica Goodman

9 reviews

haley49's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I really really enjoyed this book. Ya thrillers are very hit or miss and this hit the majority of its beats. I enjoyed the story of sisterhood and how women are often perceived a certain way and it impacts how they are treated by the men in power. I liked the brief inclusion on how this perception of women impacts races differently. 

However, it did slip up in the end and the cause-effect did not seem to add up for certain characters and the ending was a but abrupt. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexism, Abortion, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Bullying, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Lesbophobia, Racism, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, and Sexual content

sienna1508's review

adventurous mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

I kinda guessed the mystery for this one but I still liked the character-building in the story. It was mostly fast-paced except it was a bit repetitive. But overall I enjoyed it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Alcoholism, and Abortion

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Vomit, Sexual assault, Mental illness, and Blood

beckyremillard's review

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Murder, Blood, Abortion, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

theromanticace's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Violence, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Abortion, and Toxic friendship

momanom's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion and Sexual content

Moderate: Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

bekah1210's review

mysterious 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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Drug abuse, Abortion, Violence, Gaslighting, Death, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Eating disorder, Body shaming, and Bullying

teatimewtrisha's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Bullying, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

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

lottie3126's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

They'll never catch us by Jessica Goodman was definitely interesting. I will say that murder mysteries aren't really my 'thing' but I read it anyway since it's about running. I didn't love the writing style and sometimes I felt that it was doing a lot more telling rather than showing and it made the novel feel kind of bland. Although it was like this majority of the time, there was definitely a lot of detail and thought gone into the running scenes and I could really relate to it. This book cover lots of really important topics and themes and did so pretty well. I wouldn't necessarily outright recommend this book to anyone, but if somebody asked then I would say that it was a good read and to definitely give it a go.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse

Minor: Racism