Reviews with content warning for Blood - In My Dreams I Hold a Knife

In My Dreams I Hold A Knife is a tense and fast pace story of betrayal, murder, and revenge. Jessica Miller, the protagonist, is probably the most unlikeable main character I’ve ever had the experience of reading. Still, her awful personality did not take away from the story. In fact, it enhanced it.

This book touches on classism, perfectionism, and misogyny intertwining it all into a deceitful narrative that will have you wondering who is telling the truth. Who killed Heather Shelby and why?

If you enjoy fast paced mysteries with dual timelines you’ll enjoy this book. The dual timelines were my favorite part. The now vs the past and how it all interconnected by the end left me with a great appreciation for the editing and structure it took to make this novel. Ashley Winstead has found a fan in me. I’m excited to read her other works.

Content Warnings

amarahk's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

dorothe92's review against another edition

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dark sad 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

2.25

Content Warnings

dakotaw59's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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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