Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Couple Next Door

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

27 reviews

lottieingham's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

4.0

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auri_underthing's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Three words to describe this book:
Secrets. Desperation. Betrayal.

Damn. This book was just one bad happening after the other. Not sure how I feel about the ending.

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kfquarium's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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wilmay's review

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.25

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caties_books's review

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fast-paced

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nabaraditi's review

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

1.5

The premise was good that the parents are irresponsible and dumb to leave their 6 months baby alone to go to a party next door. And that's it. That's all good and interesting there is in the book.
Everything else is the opposite of good.
The characters are flat. I also didn't like the writing. There are twists in the book but they don't keep you on the edge of a seat like a thriller is supposed to.
There were plotlines in the book that didn't make sense in the story like

"the wife has postpartum depression and could hurt the baby and she's drunk enough to not remember" this makes sooooo much sense, so why add the "death of her father has caused her stress and trauma and she's diagnosed with dissociative disorder"????? like why?????????

Also,

the father-in-law having an affair with the lost child couple's neighbor???

I felt like that was just added to put everything together and fit it all in but it didn't make any sense to me.
And who is the title referring to? Who's the couple? The main couple who lost the baby? or their neighor-couple

who secretly film the wife having sex with other men and the husband watches it later and enjoys it??

There were too many internal monologues where the husband, the wife and the detective keeps going over the story and his inferences over and over and OVER AGAIN!! like i get it!!! i don't need to read what they think must have happened soooo many times!!
Nevertheless, it was hard to put down.

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kelly_e's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

Title: The Couple Next Door
Author: Shari Lapena
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 2.0
Pub Date: July 14, 2016

T H R E E • W O R D S

Quick • Lackluster • Predictable

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Anne and Marco have been invited to dinner at their next door neighbour's Cynthia and Graham, but Cynthia has blatantly told them not to bring their baby, Cora. When their baby-sitter cancels at the last minute, Anne and March decide to leave Cora at home, bring the monitor with them, and check on her every half hour. When they return home, the door is ajar, the crib is empty, and Cora is nowhere to be found.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I'll start out by saying that the first half was decent, I was interested in how it was setting the stage for what was to come. But it went south from very fast. I felt as though some things were thrown in simply for shock value, or because they are thriller must-haves. And some of these twists and turns didn't seem believable at all. The writing was mediocre, the characters were cliché with very little growth, and there's zero setting development.

All that aside, what I absolutely hated was the author's portrayal of mental illness as something to be hidden and not talked about. It didn't stop there, but Shari Lapena also uses stereotypical representation of people with DID or postpartum depression as having violent tendencies. This is part of the reason mental illness is so misunderstood, and I cannot stand when author's use mental illness as a plot point.

A highly forgettable thriller with a terrible ending, this one was definitely not for me.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers wanting a quick domestic thriller

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Everyone is faking it, all of them pretending to be something they’re not. The whole world is built on lies and deceit."

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