Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Ghosts of Thorwald Place by Helen Power

3 reviews

suneaters's review against another edition

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

2.0

This book made me super bummed. I thought it would be a fun mystery but it left me contemplating my own mortality. Also kind of ridiculous that that many insane lunatics happened to live in the building. 

The end where you find out Luke ended up killing her…so she wouldn’t leave? When he meant to scare her? Was honestly weird and unsatisfying. I buy it, but it wasn’t satisfying. And then we find out Will actually killed Jay after stalking him and Kae/Rachel for some time was meh. Why is he even here then was never really answered. Glad Melody made it out ok, but how she did escape Oliver wasn’t really mentioned.


A lot of the apartment dwellers weren’t super memorable aside from Alexei, Clark, and Sabryna. The French people were just depressing. Catalina was a good character though and I enjoyed her.
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amobrien's review

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dark mysterious tense 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

Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.

If you're in the mood for a paranormal thriller, I highly recommend The Ghosts of Thorwald Place. It's dark and tense with more than a few horror elements. The paranormal aspect is blended into the mystery well — sometimes when I'm reading a mystery, especially a domestic thriller, I feel like the addition of ghosts pulls away from the story, but this is a story that is 100% benefitted from it. There were some twists that I expected, but there were also many that completely surprised me. Overall, I found this to be a really interesting read, but I would recommend checking the content warnings before diving in.
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booksanddopamine's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5

I didn’t want to put this book down! It had me engaged from the first chapter. The book is written from the POV of the ghost of a murdered woman and she finds that Thorwald Place is haunted by more than ghosts. I enjoyed snooping around Thorwald Place with her and discovering the residents’ dark secrets - and the secrets that are unearthed about those who the protagonist thought she knew. I loved that there were so many little mysteries within the bigger mystery of the book. The way the supernatural tied in with the real world I thought was done well. There were some good twists I didn’t see coming.
 
Minor spoiler related to content warning for animal death: 
 
If you’re sensitive to animal abuse, there is a part where the protagonist finds her missing cat dead. It’s around minute 04:26 of chapter 40 in the audiobook (around 06:51:47 of the entire audiobook). If you’re reading the book, it’s toward the end of her diary entry after chapter 31 where she’s talking about all of the flies in the house and they go to investigate the fireplace. Just skip past that part. You won’t miss anything crucial to the story. I wish I had known about that part ahead of time so I could have skipped it.
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