Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean

11 reviews

louisekf's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

2.5


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colorcrystals's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0


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enzopudge's review against another edition

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challenging 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


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sariereads's review against another edition

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

3.75


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trippalli's review against another edition

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

3.0

A sad tense and dark journey into the experiences of a teen kidnapped with other teens and a girl and their efforts to survive and escape. Really horrific and sad, a dark tale of abuse, psychological terror and Fighting for survival despite being beaten, raped and watching other girls get killed violently. A story of survival, police brutality, teen resilience and the terrifying world of abuse and damaged violent people gaslighting and brainwashing victims.

Not for the feint of heart

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mamawantsbooks's review against another edition

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

5.0


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kimveach's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

It's an excellent thriller - I couldn't put it down.

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thrillofthepage's review

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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

4.25


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hannahleebibliophile's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

In the new thriller The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean, teenager Elizabeth Black makes a shocking reappearance two years after being mysteriously abducted. Ellie, as she is known to her friends and family, is clearly ravaged by the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder; she sleeps in a crawl space instead of her bed at night, refuses to bathe or cut her long, matted hair, and is repulsed by physical contact with other people. Little by little, readers learn the horrifying story of her capture and forcible induction into a repressive cult on a deserted, rural property. Meanwhile, in alternating chapters, Detective Chelsey Calhoun works against the clock to find Ellie’s captors. She has worked the case since the earliest days of her career, motivated by a tragedy involving her sister during their teenage years. But as more information about other victims comes to light, Chelsey begins to suspect that Ellie herself is hiding something sinister. 
To me, this book is a masterpiece. As a voracious reader of mysteries and thrillers, I repeatedly thought I had this book’s plot and its characters’ motivations all figured out — and every time, I was wrong. Author Emiko Jean managed to keep me guessing until the last pages. This book touched on some incredibly dark but important topics:  survivor’s guilt and the freeze and fawn responses are only a few. I highly recommend this book. The opinions expressed in this review are mine. Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for access to the advanced reader copy. 

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bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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
disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

I read this in one sitting because I wanted to know what happened. I genuinely adored Tokyo Ever After & Mika In Real Life. Soooo, I was beyond thrilled that EJ was writing an adult thriller/mystery! 

Ellie Black returns two years after she went missing and is apprehensive to working with the police to bring her kidnapper (and alleged murderer, because other girls have gone missing and their bodies had been found later). She is skittish, disoriented, and understandably uninterested in discussing what happened to her. The detective on the case wants to bring Ellie’s kidnapper to justice, with extra pressure from her boss, Sergeant Abbott. Chelsey’s sister Lydia also went missing and was murdered when Chelsey was in high school, so she has an added layer of wanting to succeed in finding the man who did this to Ellie. 

So ultimately, the mystery and little reveals were quite clever, and J genuinely was deeply intrigued by Ellie’s first-person narrative chapters as she recounted her time in being kidnapped. I thought that the set up and unraveling of this mystery were actually executed quite well! I really appreciated and lamented with the overarching message of the story, with regards to how society normalizes violence and abuse against women. Misogyny is a widespread issue, and incels are a danger to us all. I totally agree! 

However, I wish the main character of this story (Chelsey — transracial Japanese adoptee of a white family) was not a cop, and not proud to be a cop. I have just kind of had it with cop stories, especially when they’re painted as the heroes. Chelsey even mentions her “cop origin story” when tying it back to making her late cop dad proud. I just don’t vibe with it. She could have been a private investigator, the former best friend of Ellie Black, a former teacher of Ellie Black, a journalist, whatever! Anyway, her occupation really bothered me. 

Overall, I enjoyed the story but it frustrated me that Chelsey was so thrilled to be a cop🥴

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