Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

43 reviews

frenchvanillapowdercreamer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

The best book I’ve read so far this year. Fantastic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, Murder, Infidelity, Child death, Death, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Violence, Pregnancy, and Chronic illness

Minor: Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, and Suicide

ajpotz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

it was like girlboss ish and then like jonnie basically just eating pierce tf up and then like law of assumption from the author

imagine killing someone bc of a fake story someone told

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Cancer and Abortion

itsheyfay's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Violence, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Chronic illness, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Addiction, Drug use, Child death, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Suicide, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Miscarriage and Vomit

luverbyrd's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

2.0

I almost DNFd this. I should have, but I thought "maybe it will have an interesting twist at the end". It kind of did, I guessed one of the "twists" very early on.
I found the past story more interesting than the present. I despised the "friendship" Chess and Emily had from the start. I didn't really like any of the characters, past or present.
I enjoyed the inserts of fake news articles and podcasts to bring the history of the villa to the reader. It was a nice touch.
This book just wasn't what I expected and wasn't the right fit for my tastes.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Murder, and Sexism

Minor: Abortion

theonlybaillie's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

The pacing was so off on this one for me. I was bored the entire book and then drawn in the last 50 or so pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Violence, Alcohol, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicide

Minor: Grief, Terminal illness, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Pregnancy, Self harm, and Vomit

nickoliver's review against another edition

mysterious 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

This wasn't very original, most things were very easily predictable - though admittedly, the very last chapter did take me a bit by surprise, and it did add a bit of a dark, tragic twist. Also, it was very fast-paced, and once I really sat down to read, the pages flew quickly. I just wished the loose ends hadn't stayed so loose; I felt like there were certain plot points that alluded to things that never actually ended up happening.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Child death, Death, Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Drug use, Infidelity, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Violence and Suicide

Minor: Cancer and Miscarriage

jpellwood's review

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Addiction, and Drug use

Minor: Terminal illness

ohennui's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

Minor: Death, Drug use, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Grief, and Miscarriage

memazz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

elyssam's review

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

4.25

The Villa has parallel stories of Mari and her summer in the 70s and Emily in present day. Emily is in the middle of a divorce when her best friend, Chess, offers her a summer in Italy at the same villa where a murder occurred. Emily is a cozy mystery writer and takes Chess up on the offer to see if she can get her mind off the divorce and back into writing. While there, she gets sucked into Mari’s world by reading the late author’s book that was published after the tragedy. 

I loved the double story telling. As the 70s murder mystery unraveled, Emily’s story got built up and up. I suspected some twists but didn’t see others coming. I will say that my biggest letdown was that Mari’s story was much more exciting, the climax was strong, and the ending intriguing. Emily and Chess’ story fell a little flat and didn’t seem to have as fleshed out of an ending as the other story. Other than that, the story was great. I loved diving into the murder mystery while trying to figure out the best friends’ dynamic. 

This book is unlike any I’ve read recently. It had the atmospheric glow of an Italian summer but is still very thriller-heavy. We are not skipping down cobblestones eating gelato, we are taking cautious steps and trying not to get caught in lies. It is perfect for anyone wanting something immersive or for fans of duel timelines. I’m really happy to have had the chance to read this! 

(I still have so many thoughts and questions and I wish that book reviews could just be filled with spoilers so I could unleash everything. But this is where I say “read The Villa!” instead.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Child death and Suicide

Minor: Drug use