Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert

15 reviews

cosypuck's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Pedophilia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia

sophia_pearl's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, and Stalking

bridget_magpie's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

This is such a strong 4 stars book, I will give it a 4.25 instead. The writing is amazing, Melissa Albert is clearly crazy talented, this book makes me want to check out her other works. 
The characters are so well written half of the time I was conflicted if

Becca is a good person or an antagonist because of her toxic and manipulative behaviour presented a few times in the story.

The ending was good enough for a small town mystery novel, I just didn’t like how

little we got of what happened after. Nora’s other friends didn’t even show up at the end, not even mentioned which I though was unfortunate.

But all in all I really enjoyed this book and I devoured it as fast as I could. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, and Gore

spadefootfrog's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Car accident, and Alcohol

freemakd's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Terminal illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship

bluz19's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

I thought that the storyline ended up being pretty interesting at the end but the beginning lacked luster. This story is laid out by teenagers as they try to find answers, at times it did seem rudimentary or that it was clearer to see the answers that they were ignoring. I don’t think the story allowed for us to get very close to the characters. They seemed all very surface level and self absorbed, like teens can be. Looking back at the story I truly feel like not much went on the whole time. Like they did locate where this game came from and found resolution in all their questions, but it felt like it lacked more in depth. 

I loved the overall story, the history, the characters connections through past and present. I think the storytelling was great and the overall premise pulled me in but I didn’t feel attached to any character. The story was sluggish until Nora begins to really look at the clues and piece together what is happening. I think that it allowed for surface level “creep” factor as well as some twists and turns that made us rethink the current reality. I didn’t know how the author would end the story, I don’t feel like it was far fetched but the ending could’ve been more flushed and clear. There were some things that could’ve been better explained, and could’ve been used to help us feel the characters more. 

This book is YA with bits of magical realism and the supernatural thrown in. There is mystery that surrounds their school, their town, and their lives. Although I wanted more of the goddess, more creepy additions, and more character development, I think this book was a nice read overall. It’s not an earth shattering book but it is a book that gives a bit of everything in the form of teenage angst. I liked the overall premise of the book and if I hadn’t expected more based off the summary, it may have been just right. 

Overall if you want something with a bit of supernatural, some teenagers, and a wild childhood story come to life, then I think you will enjoy this book.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, and Death of parent

sonygaystation's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was kinda messy but in  way I enjoyed! The time jumps were a little jarring with the perspective changes but once I got the handle of it (I listened rather than read the book) I could go with the flow better. I think there could’ve been more room for character development with the side characters because I enjoyed them and would’ve liked to see them more. I think James literally just served as a love interest (which I don’t dislike because lorde knows so many writers dump women in their novels as side characters just to serve as the MC’s LI) and I wish his role in things was a little more prevalent. I did really enjoy Nora’s extracurricular scenes because I really liked Ruth! With Becca, there was one line Nora’s sister said where it was made pretty clear Becca isn’t seen as good for Nora and (alongside a convo with Nora’s mom) implied that Becca’s too overprotective of Nora to the point that keeps Nora from making other friends. That felt like a big theme to have but it didn’t really go anywhere? Like all we see of their relationship is from Nora’s perspective but she spends 80% of the book only referring to their falling out and we only hear about the good parts really as they were when they were kids so that felt off. But! I had a good time and I’d read it again for sure!! I’m also happy it ended the way it did because Nora deserved some good things coming her way 🫶

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Alcohol

i_love_fob's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Pedophilia and Mass/school shootings

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

    When 3 students and a teacher go missing one night, one of their best friends, Nora, and the mysterious boy James, get pulled into an old town myth, the Goddess Game.
    Well, I found the book partly predictable. I figured out what was up with the connection to the old game, or who was now in the story was connected to it pretty easily.
    There were some good parts, like the interesting twist as to why these particular people disappeared, and what exactly was going on with Becca being a bit harder to guess.
    I didn't like the "evil Goddess" thing. It's an anti-Pagan trope that rubs me the wrong way, even though I do not identify as Pagan.
    Overall, the book wasn't terrible, it was just a bit too anti-Pagan and predictable for me. Though at least it wasn't preachy it was more overall anti-religion.

Narrator Rating: 4 stars
   The narrator was excellent but not spectacular. Her voice can also be a bit annoying at certain points; it just depends on her tone.

Elemental Levels:  Heartfelt-3/5   Mystery-3/5     Predictability-3.5/5   Suspense-1/5   Tear- 2.5/5     Thrill-1/5 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child death, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Mass/school shootings

blacksphinx's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

This beautiful fantasy-tinged horror has changed my opinion about YA. This book has some of the most real and authentic teens I've seen in fiction. It took me right back through my own life, my own intense girlhood friendships, and the rituals of childhood I had almost forgotten. And it was a good story too!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Mass/school shootings