Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

21 reviews

tessvosper's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Murder, Rape, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Drug use, Suicide, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Death, Bullying, Eating disorder, Grief, Abandonment, Body shaming, Classism, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

amarahk's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.0

I’m conflicted with rating this book because I absolutely hated the reveals near to the end and I hate most of the characters . On the other hand I can’t rate this less than a 3 because that’s unfair to the author. Her writing was good and I read this in a day, so clearly I didn’t find it boring. It was entertaining even though I disliked what happens.  I’ll explain what I didn’t like (but it’s all spoilers so don’t read anymore of this review, if you haven’t read the book.

WARNING: RANT ABOUT EVERYTHING I HATED, INCLUDING SPOILERS.

Initially I wasn’t happy with who the murderer was because I kinda liked Mint, but I see how it makes sense for him to have done it. From the start I predicted Jess would be the killer. In fact she even thought she might be the killer, yet all she thought about was being popular at the reunion. She’s meant to be 30 so that’s pretty embarrassing and she should get more therapy if that was her priority.

I actually think that Jess was way worse than Mint. I don’t condone what he did but Jess was evil for cheating on him, even after what he told her. She didn’t express guilt once for being a cheater and her mindset throughout the book is disgusting. She really is a narcissistic sociopath, who doesn’t take accountability for anything. She was a horrible friend to poor Caro and an evil human being, to be honest. She seems like a psychopath because she didn’t care about the effects her actions have on others, she only cares about herself. As for Coop? He was likeable but he cheated on poor Caro. Also the fact that he loves Jess despite her evil doings isn’t cute to me, it’s weird. Caro isn’t completely innocent either, it’s kinda weird that she stalked her friends…  There wasn’t really a single character who was likeable. The whole friend group was pretentious..

I feel like I read this all for nothing and I don’t recommend it tbh. It’s mainly because the ‘protagonist’ is so unlikeable, but maybe that was intentional and if so the author did a great job of portraying her as that. 

TL;DR 3 stars is generous, main character is insufferable. It made me mad but I still wanted to read on, wasn’t worth the time though.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Classism, Addiction, Blood, Cursing, Murder, and Drug use

Minor: Rape and Alcohol

aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Toxic friendship, Grief, Death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Bullying, Violence, Drug use, Death of parent, Gore, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Stalking

Minor: Homophobia, Body shaming, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Classism, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Violence, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Addiction

Minor: Alcohol, Fatphobia, Medical content, Body shaming, Homophobia, Outing, Bullying, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Death of parent, and Stalking

violagirl25's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Death of parent, Alcohol, Addiction, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Grief, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Biphobia, Addiction, Infidelity, Rape, Vomit, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Medical content, Mental illness, Outing, Hate crime, Homophobia, Stalking, Alcohol, and Cursing

melissaslibraryy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Misogyny, Blood, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

awkwardimagination's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

(these may be spoilers, but i dont know, ill keep it vague)



This book is (mostly) about entitled white people and their vanity and their inability to seek a decent therapist (i saw mostly bc two characters are poc), in the simplest terms. (i was wrong about jessica btw). Most of these characters were not likeable, they were all kinda horrible people. Except for Caro, who was like a little creepy, Jack, who was also a little creepy, and Frankie, who was probably the most normal motherfucker out of all of them (the diversity characters really got screwed over in the book). I liked the ending, and Jess in the beginning was likeable. Did not end how I thought it was gonna end and some things felt kinda convenient, but it was enjoyable.

I really dont think this book was for me, these arent the kind of characters i enjoy reading about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, Blood, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcohol, Classism, Death of parent, Addiction, Body shaming, Car accident, Vomit, Cursing, and Religious bigotry

hheftie477's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Murder, Blood, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Drug abuse and Rape

Minor: Suicide attempt and Homophobia

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.25

I'm not going to lie, for the first 60-70 pages of this book, I wasn't enjoying it which made me sad because I absolutely ADORED "The Last Housewife" by this author. I was almost going to DNF it, however, in  "The Last Housewife" I also didn't enjoy the first 60 or so pages so I thought I'd give this book the same courtesy and I'm so glad I did.

Although I wasn't enjoying the first 60-70 pages there was something about Ashely Winstead's writing that got me. It was like it was laced with something because I still read it pretty quickly. Same with the previous book that I read from her; I just really enjoy her writing. However, I think a big part of me not enjoying the beginning was that I felt like there were too many characters being introduced at once for me to imagine who was who. 

After my rough patch in the beginning, I started to really enjoy the book and the things that went down. There was so much drama and secrets and that's what kept it so entertaining for me. There were so many crazy things happening. A lot (if not most) of the characters were unlikeable which isn't a deterring factor for me when it comes to a good book. I honestly think their unlikeability was the point. To point out that no one in that friend group was innocent as well as revealing the toxicity that engulfed them. 

I also enjoyed the subtle subplot of romance in this book once I understood the dynamic because in the beginning I was confused about who Jessica was really falling for, but that becomes clear a bit later. 

And as I was reading, I couldn't help but notice that Mint and Jessica kind of parallel each either. Both are concerned with image and status and it's pointed out a couple of times in the book that both view each other superficially. Mint views Jessica as "the good girl" who will stay loyal to him no matter what. And Jessica views Mint as "the golden boy" to elevate her status as she strives for her father's dream. It's also important to note their parental situation and the fact that both their fathers are dead. I'm glad that the author pointed that out in the end. That they're two sides of the same coin.

I got the twist about halfway through the book however it was still fun to see how things unfollowed. It was so crazy!

Overall, I had a good time with this book and that's honestly thing only thing one can ask for when you read a book! Also, I loved Coop! (and Jack and Frankie) 

However, I don't encourage Jack's cheating on Heather with Frankie at all. I feel like this has become normalized, but I honestly can't stand it when it's portrayed that a closeted person cheats on their significant other with someone else. Cheating is cheating regardless of the reason behind it (except in abusive circumstances). He still hurt her and I cannot stand for that. And I also don't condone Coop's cheating on Caro as well as Jessica's cheating on Mint (as bad as Mint was).

 

Side note: I saw some comments about the title. I'm not sure if this is a reoccurring theme in Ashely Winstead's book, but I've noticed that both the books I've read by her have titles that didn't have much to do with the book, but I have noticed that they do match certain scenes in the book. Like this title, "In My Dreams I Hold on a Knife" may reference the fact that Heather was stabbed 17x. Just a theory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Death, Violence, Abandonment, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Grief, Alcohol, Blood, and Drug abuse

Minor: Drug use, Rape, Classism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Homophobia, Outing, and Sexual assault

pageafter_paige's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

This books was so good! There was insane drama and toxic friendships that had me glued to my kindle! The characters flaws all come to light and it’s just so messy in the best way! I know I’ll be thinking about this one for awhile! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Classism, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Blood, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Addiction, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Drug use