Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

5 reviews

basicwinebitch's review

I read about half or 60% of this book for a book club, it was the first time I read a thriller but it was too stressful and anxiety inducing for me.
I see the good points of this book - it centers the female experience of victims, family and friends of a serial killer targeting women and I really like the choice to never use the man’s name.
However, this book is a fictionalised story of the real murders and I personally don’t feel right about that. I think you could choose to tell the stories of these real women in a factual way, or write a fully fictional book about the topic but to so closely base a fictional book on the real events and real people does not feel right to me. It leads to people discussing real people and their decisions in a way we would discuss a made up character but these are extremely traumatic events.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

dishajetly_123's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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: Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Violence, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

edresbach's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

tigertheory's review against another edition

dark hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Eating disorder and War

songbird72's review

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.25

This book tells the fictionalized story of victims and survivors of Ted Bundy in the 1970s--one in Florida and one in Washington.  I was excited to read this because of all the buzz it received and because I liked that it focused on the victims' side of the story.    Great premise but it just didn't deliver for me.  One of the themes of the book was how differently women were viewed and treated in the 70's and I did think that was interesting but it was more a side theme than a main focus.    I found the main characters somewhat unlikeable and thought the story followed too many rabbit trails.   

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Abandonment