Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole

46 reviews

entanglednovels's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Wow. Every good thing I’ve heard about this proves true. The amount of twists and turns that all added up so perfectly -while still remaining believable (scarily believable) - just shows how well Cole adapted to the thriller genre. The amount of power and truth behind Cole’s fictional story is both amazing and a little horrifying (mostly due to the truth part). If I can say one thing about this, it’s read it. Just read it. Don’t ask too many questions. I will eagerly pick up more thrillers from Cole should she write more in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Blood, Police brutality, Stalking, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

kaylamoran's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a lot.  Wow.
I've seen a lot of white reviewers complain that this book wasn't thrilling, wasn't creepy.  As a white person myself I'd just like to ask if they read the same book.  This book was the definition of unsettling.  The creepiness, the dread, it starts in chapter one and never stops from there.
I loved Sydney and Theo.  I loved how easily I could get into both of their minds, how well fleshed out and how human they both were.  Both were so flawed but had such good intentions, and I was rooting for them both the entire time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Torture, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cursing, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Stalking, and Cultural appropriation

ivana's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

hmatt's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Book-clubbing this one so maybe I'll have more thoughts after talking it through with others.

This didn't grip me. It's like I could see what the author was trying to do the whole time, but it didn't pull me in or immerse me in the "thriller" aspects. I felt it was very "nothing... nothing... nothing... OK GO... alright it's over" - great descriptors, I know.

A very minor, personal-preference type issue I had was keeping track of all the minor characters. It's such a short book that I didn't really get a lot of contextualization to help stick all the background neighbour characters' names in my head - I think it would have improved the read if I could remember them better.

Also, there's one part (arguably the most thrilling:

when she gets in the fake Uber

) that I still don't think I fully understand. Maybe I'm missing where this was explained. Again, the minor-character thing is maybe hindering something. But I wish the rest of the story had captured that same vibe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Blood, and Police brutality

Minor: Domestic abuse

paolina's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Starts slow but picks up in the middle and races to the end. Truly unsettling, though there weren't any major twists. Just a steady build in tension the whole way until it breaks over your head in the conclusion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Forced institutionalization

amberinbookland's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder

sheryl_macca's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

When No One Is Watching is seriously intense. It's dark, sinister, psychological, mysterious, challenging and really, really intense.

Although it's entirely fictional it's also based on historical truth. Hideous, racist, historical, shameful truth that should be highlighted. This book shines a floodlight directly at gentrification, fraud and exploitation. There's a serious and important message about institutional racism, capitalism at all cost and the entitlement of rich, white people in positions of power.

The setting is a single location, the cast of characters is few and there are just 2 POVs. This intensifies the suspense, the action and the shock.

I was, however, over half way through when I said to my partner, "if someone doesn't die in the next 10 pages then I just don't get it". Someone did die and much more besides which did bring everything together and focused the plot. The story escalated quickly from there but the brooding, tense build up took a little long for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders

girlonbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻 (five stars as rated in Sydney’s mamma's sunflowers)

The residents of Gifford Place are disappearing. One by one they are being pushed out of their homes - some forced to sell to highfalutin property investors while others just up and vanish. Sydney Green knows that there’s more going on here than meets the eye and is determined to get to the bottom of what’s happening to her friends and neighbors. 

This book blew me away. Gentrification is a nasty business and this book succeeds in giving it an even more sinister spin with a very Get Out feel. Every twist and turn was genuinely enjoyable to me and the ending had me completely gripped! I love a good thriller, particularly one that is believable. I think what was most chilling about this book is that it isn’t really that far-fetched. After all, what’s more terrifying and depraved than the 400+ year legacy of white supremacy? 

"People bury the parts of history they don't like, pave it over like African cemeteries beneath Manhattan skyscrapers.”

✨ Rep in this book: Black author, Black protagonist, own voices

✨ Content warnings for this book: medical stuff, forced institutionalization, wrongful accusation, racism, death of a parent, murder, domestic violence, abuse, dysfunctional relationship, white supremacy, abuse of power by police and government officials 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, and Murder

sarah984's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This starts out with a romcom atmosphere and then just keeps ramping up the tension. There were both laugh-out-loud moments and full-volume gasp plot twists. I've seen a few reviews that think the villains are too cartoonish but honestly, there's very little that an antagonist character says in this that I haven't seen a real-world white person say or come close to saying when they think no one is looking. Having the two POVs kept me guessing and also gave the author a way to impart the real-world info (eg about redlining) in a way that made sense with the plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Medical content, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty, Genocide, Slavery, Vomit, Dementia, and Stalking

buttoneyereads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Blood