Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Good Sister

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth

47 reviews

01bee's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book! I was in a bit of a reading slump, and this book plulled me out. Yes, I figured out the twist early on, but I think that was the point, to just enjoy the journey and it didn't take away from the book in my opinion. Loved the dual perspective and the writing style.

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evawhite's review against another edition

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dark funny 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

4.0

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randiflower's review against another edition

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dark funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

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literarystrawberry's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

This was a real page-turner, and I was completely engrossed until I finished it. I only have a few minor quibbles with the ending. I agree with Lee ( https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/510bb86c-6444-40a8-bf3c-afd270c85406 ) that the character in the last chapter would probably not be that self-aware; to me it just felt like the author's way of tying up loose ends by spelling things out for the reader instead of trusting that we could figure out the implications ourselves. I think the book would have been stronger without that epilogue.

Another small thing that bothered me a little: I wish that a character hadn't thrown in at the end that the antagonist probably had narcissistic or borderline personality disorder. I'm no expert on either, but it's my understanding that people who are diagnosed with those disorders are already frequently villainized, and I guess I'm just sensitive to the twist being "They're scary because they're mentally ill!" I do understand that mental illness can influence some people to do awful things, and it does seem clear that there's /something/ wrong with the antagonist, but I just don't feel like it was necessary to throw in a specific label so casually. I especially think this since I don't believe the word "autism" was used once in Fern's case (though it was pretty clear that's how she was coded), so it could have been interesting to leave both open to interpretation on the reader's part and let there be some ambiguity and speculation about why the antagonist did what they did.

So yeah, I feel that the ending could have been stronger, but I was definitely invested, and overall I did enjoy it.

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