Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

15 reviews

nabaraditi's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Mental illness

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Blood and Infidelity

miciahsreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child death, Sexual harassment, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Stalking, Abandonment, Bullying, and Vomit

lycheejelly's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Kidnapping

Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

temeade's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This book was AMAZING! There were so many twists and turns happening throughout the entire book! It easily kept my interest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Mental illness

Minor: Death of parent

laurawoods13's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Very fast-paced interesting book. I enjoyed reading it and wanted to know what was going to happen next, but I was extremely disappointed by the ending. It was very rushed, lazy, and frankly not really believable. It seemed like a weak way to wrap up the book, without actually finishing the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Mental illness

Moderate: Blood and Murder

Minor: Death and Death of parent