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crystal689's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Grief, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Blood, Cancer, and Death of parent
Minor: Child death
shereadsmysteries's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Gaslighting, Suicide, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, and Abandonment
Additional content details: Cults, cult mindset, brainwashing, assisted suicidethebakerbookworm's review
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
While this book was well-written and I didn't get bored with the story, unlikable characters and a frustrating ending (to me) pushed this book into the "meh" category for me.
We have three narrators: Natalie, Kit, and an unknown voice, who we see in flashbacks from childhood to adulthood. Of the three, I felt like I got to know the unknown voice the best. Natalie was flat the whole time, which was frustrating to me because at the beginning, she's our main character. But she gets no development or real complexity and I found myself not caring what happened to her. We get to know Kit a little better, but I found her more annoying than endearing. The third voice gets the most development, and though I soon guessed who this narrator was, she's still interesting. But how the ending plays out just made her story seem pointless to me. There are other side characters that are interesting at first, but again, they are all pretty flat.
The plot jumps around from present to past, but I actually thought this format worked for the story. I think I was mainly just annoyed by the ending; I felt like it was building up to something and then it didn't end up having a release. Also, there are a lot of *icky* things that happen in the story that unnerved me and I'd really rather not read about those kinds of things...
Lots of people have loved this one; it just wasn't for me. I do think it's well-written though, so it's not falling into the "I hate this" category lol. Just not one I can recommend without caution.
We have three narrators: Natalie, Kit, and an unknown voice, who we see in flashbacks from childhood to adulthood. Of the three, I felt like I got to know the unknown voice the best. Natalie was flat the whole time, which was frustrating to me because at the beginning, she's our main character. But she gets no development or real complexity and I found myself not caring what happened to her. We get to know Kit a little better, but I found her more annoying than endearing. The third voice gets the most development, and though I soon guessed who this narrator was, she's still interesting. But how the ending plays out just made her story seem pointless to me. There are other side characters that are interesting at first, but again, they are all pretty flat.
The plot jumps around from present to past, but I actually thought this format worked for the story. I think I was mainly just annoyed by the ending; I felt like it was building up to something and then it didn't end up having a release. Also, there are a lot of *icky* things that happen in the story that unnerved me and I'd really rather not read about those kinds of things...
Lots of people have loved this one; it just wasn't for me. I do think it's well-written though, so it's not falling into the "I hate this" category lol. Just not one I can recommend without caution.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Cancer and Death of parent
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