Reviews with content warning for Body horror - This Might Hurt

This was an absolutely searing and timely exploration of wellness culture and family secrets packed into a suspense filled thriller. The desperate desire for an easy answer to explain all pain away along with the toxic, hierarchical, and manipulative relationships at this story's core truly encapsulated the cult-like mentality of many self-improvement and wellness retreat ventures. Throwing this in sharp relief against the similar longings for love, belonging, and acceptance even at the expense of excusing abuse that make up many family dynamics was truly a stroke of genius. A very fresh meditation on power and groupthink!

The twists and turns were shocking and the ending preserved the novel's overall dark and unsettling mood. I just love thrillers that combine astute social commentary with complex characters and page turning anticipation. Wrobel delivered that with This Might Hurt.

tw: child abuse, cult, emotional abuse and manipulation

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anniesbookpicks's review

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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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thebakerbookworm's review

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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.

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schnurln's review

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dark tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Some of this hit real close and oof. Other parts meh.

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ohhthehorrors's review

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dark emotional sad tense medium-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

5.0

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