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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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Hate crime, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Stalking
Minor: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship
elzibub's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Racism, and Grief
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence
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.
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:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Drug use, and Police brutality
Minor: Domestic abuse
sharanya's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.0
Whew, that was a RIDE. I’m not well-versed in thriller as a genre, so I can’t speak much to whether or not this stood up in terms of plot & pacing. What I CAN say is that this book made me *feel* the effects of gentrification in a way that research & hot-take-articles could not. The love, horror & loss that Sydney feels is palpable & beautifully written. Imperfect, maybe, but still a heart-wrenching social thriller about community & home.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Minor: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse
amberinbookland's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Slavery, Stalking, Torture, and Violence
zoe_'s review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Oh god, I have no idea how to feel about this one.
First up and most importantly: this was well written, the characters were developed well, there was an interesting plot. I absolutely cannot fault any of the basics of the book. The conflict I‘m facing relates to how I feel about the competently developed story. Thus, I would encourage others to check this book out for themselves should they find themselves interested in the plot.
My trouble isn’t even with the fact that the pacing is off. It‘s not the kind of thriller where you‘re trying to figure out what is going on, but it’s a sort of horror where you know something is really, really wrong and you’re just waiting for the big reveal. (I‘d say the reveal is so out there that it’s not really anything you could guess but, frankly, I did guess a lot of it. I actually overshot a little, if anything. This did not dampen my enjoyment.)
It’s not even really that I wasn’t a fan of the romance sub-plot. Though I wasn’t, I understood why Cole included it as a sort of safe-space but also origin of additional tension at the same time. It was quite effective at both (though I could have really done without the sex-scenes). I even liked both characters to an extent where I was sort of cheering for them to get together for a while, albeit more so that I‘d learn more about their backstories.
What I‘m most conflicted about was the one element that was done particularly well. Because Cole managed to paint such a horrible picture of Gentrification, I could really feel the horror that people who face it are dealing with. But then this horror turned into a major plot pointi.e. Gentrification became the actual horror element of the book that it twisted the realities of Gentrification into a sort of comical farce? Because Gentrification was a process of actual horror, its „not humans capturing other humans and experimenting on them“/real life horror became a lot weaker. It’s like the book was saying that a lot of the concerns were unreal because obviously what was happening was waay beyond reality. This was clearly not the intent of the book, though. Which resulted in the plot losing a lot of its impact on me. I know this is not what the book intended to do, moreover it dragged one of the best elements at the beginning of the plot into a muddle of weird I didn’t really enjoy.
I do really appreciate what this book was doing, but that last 25% were... a lot. And I‘m not sure that „a lot“ was for the best of the story.
First up and most importantly: this was well written, the characters were developed well, there was an interesting plot. I absolutely cannot fault any of the basics of the book. The conflict I‘m facing relates to how I feel about the competently developed story. Thus, I would encourage others to check this book out for themselves should they find themselves interested in the plot.
My trouble isn’t even with the fact that the pacing is off. It‘s not the kind of thriller where you‘re trying to figure out what is going on, but it’s a sort of horror where you know something is really, really wrong and you’re just waiting for the big reveal. (I‘d say the reveal is so out there that it’s not really anything you could guess but, frankly, I did guess a lot of it. I actually overshot a little, if anything. This did not dampen my enjoyment.)
It’s not even really that I wasn’t a fan of the romance sub-plot. Though I wasn’t, I understood why Cole included it as a sort of safe-space but also origin of additional tension at the same time. It was quite effective at both (though I could have really done without the sex-scenes). I even liked both characters to an extent where I was sort of cheering for them to get together for a while, albeit more so that I‘d learn more about their backstories.
What I‘m most conflicted about was the one element that was done particularly well. Because Cole managed to paint such a horrible picture of Gentrification, I could really feel the horror that people who face it are dealing with. But then this horror turned into a major plot point
I do really appreciate what this book was doing, but that last 25% were... a lot. And I‘m not sure that „a lot“ was for the best of the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, and Racism
Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse
danajoy's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Medical content
Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Police brutality, Slavery, and Violence
Minor: Excrement
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.
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Racism
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Murder, and Police brutality
spellboundchapters's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This gave me huge Lock Every Door meets Get Out vibes. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. I learned a ton of stuff about gentrification, redlining, black people being kept from owning land/pass it on to their children, and that creepy amusement park??? Still horrified that such a thing existed.
I really liked Sydney's character (Theo was alright too - not a fan of the romance though but I didn't mind it), and the first 2/3 of the book overall got me really engaged (although there were some parts I found were a bit too slow paced). There were some really good twists and the atmosphere was very creepy and got my heart racing quite a few times.
But I found the pacing weird : one moment it's super slow, then something creepy is going on and then it's back to being slow and sometimes it's like that scary situation never happened ? And the ending was way over the top for me and felt too easy.You wanna make me believe a facility owned by a multi-million company doesn't have any security guarding it and that everyone can just come in by a secret door? The villains were super caricatural and we know from the beginning who they are.
This one is a personal preference but I just don't like when characters are being made unreliable with substance abuse - imo Sydney's paranoia/anxiety was already enough to make her unreliable.
And lastly, I would've liked for the epilogue to be another chapter, and have an epilogue set a few months later to see what happened to the neighbourhood. There were just too many plot holes and unanswered questions. They're all quite spoiler-y so I'm gonna hide them, except for this one : why is no one on social media?? The protagonists are in their 20s/early 30s and yet none of them uses social media to alert about the shady stuff happening and people disappearing? I don't buy it.
What was that whole bed bugs story line about? Were they real or was it just Sydney's anxiety/lack of sleep making her have hallucinations? Who was on the phone when Sydney called her mum/writing on the shared doc to Theo? Where is Sydney's mum's body? Who took it? How did they hack Sydney's phone during the Uber ride? Was Theo drugged the night Mr. Perkins disappeared and why? Who killed Drea and how? What happens to the kidnapped people at the end? Do they just go back to regular life? Do all the white people move out from the neighbourhood after the fire? Is Sydney keeping her house? How does she get away with everything?
I really liked Sydney's character (Theo was alright too - not a fan of the romance though but I didn't mind it), and the first 2/3 of the book overall got me really engaged (although there were some parts I found were a bit too slow paced). There were some really good twists and the atmosphere was very creepy and got my heart racing quite a few times.
But I found the pacing weird : one moment it's super slow, then something creepy is going on and then it's back to being slow and sometimes it's like that scary situation never happened ? And the ending was way over the top for me and felt too easy.
This one is a personal preference but I just don't like when characters are being made unreliable with substance abuse - imo Sydney's paranoia/anxiety was already enough to make her unreliable.
And lastly, I would've liked for the epilogue to be another chapter, and have an epilogue set a few months later to see what happened to the neighbourhood. There were just too many plot holes and unanswered questions. They're all quite spoiler-y so I'm gonna hide them, except for this one : why is no one on social media?? The protagonists are in their 20s/early 30s and yet none of them uses social media to alert about the shady stuff happening and people disappearing? I don't buy it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Racism, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Murder, Alcoholism, and Emotional abuse