Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert

24 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

dutchessofbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense

4.0

A fun YA horror read with lots of openings for discussion. I think the ending definitely left a little to be desired though, I felt everything was wrapped up a little too quickly, my students in the book club agreed. The

kiss at the end was a little cheesy. But ohwell, it's YA ;)

We talked about this book for a good 1,5 hours. I see what you did there, Melissa Albert,

with the story about the man who died in the mausoleum. Annabel Lee?

Well anyway that gave me an entry to introduce Edgar Allan Poe and the poem Annabel Lee to them. Once they saw the similarities, they saw where my hypothesis was coming from and they really appreciated their introduction to this writer ("whut, did gothics exist back then?! yes, my dear student, they certainly did").

The other subject we talked about for a good while was

Tate's story. We are in a high school, and we discussed whether something like that could 1. happen at our school and 2. to the present students. It was fascinating to hear some of their naivité. Because of course it could happen to anyone. What if a teacher gave them lots of compliments and lulled them into a sense of security.... A very good opening to talk about boundaries. Thanks to the author for including this story!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Mass/school shootings

aamarii_98's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.75

The writing style of this book was very confusing for me. I can’t describe it very well, it just felt like the pacing would change suddenly and there was a lot of explanations for unnecessary things at random points. I was curious about how it ended, so I only finished the book for that reason

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Self harm

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

orangewitchling's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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

3.5

For a young adult novel, it was fairly well written if not for the language used a bit flourished but it felt more poetic than obnoxious, otherwise I would have DNF immediately.
I liked the plot and I liked it more because it focused on friendship, loss and trauma. There was the bit of romance, but it was not the center just a side story and it was not dramatic so I find it more like a palate cleanser from all the mystery. 
This was comfy horror and I'm glad I gave it a chance, it read fast enough and entertaining enough for me to not jump to the last chapters and find out, although I had an idea of where the story was going, the ending was still satisfying enough.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Toxic friendship

taranim's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

I reviewed this book for Paper Lanterns for Issue 14! Full review at the link below:

https://paperlanternslit.com/the-bad-ones-by-melissa-albert-review/ 

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An enjoyable read that was quick but still managed to have a main cast full of fleshed out characters. I wished we had seen more of the aftermath but I liked the way it wrapped up for the most part.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, and Alcohol

lost_page's review

dark emotional reflective tense fast-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, and Grief

Minor: Child death and Murder

kaylinvm94's review against another edition

dark

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent and Murder

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Mass/school shootings

shanaaa's review

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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Violence, Stalking, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Bullying, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

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