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charlizzzard_'s review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
A book that had me desperate to work out the mystery within!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Alcohol, and Alcoholism
greatexpectations77's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book got so confusing. Almost like Ms. Ware wrote herself into a corner, and then had to get really creative to make everything kind of work out. Also, I feel like the whole plot point about Hal owing a bunch of money to the creepy guy was just not really resolved? Truly, it's my own fault for continuing to read books that I'm not really into haha
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment and Death of parent
Moderate: Bullying, Pregnancy, Classism, Grief, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, and Death
Minor: Infidelity, Blood, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Car accident
larareads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Death, Car accident, and Confinement
Moderate: Pregnancy and Murder
Minor: Physical abuse
gracescanlon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
This was an intriguing novel, with lovable characters and multiple successful red herrings. I did see some of the twists coming, but I wasn’t always entirely correct about the particulars. That kind of twist - where I can guess that there is one, and can guess maybe something or things about it, but other things I didn’t expect are revealed later - is my favorite. It’s the best of both worlds: I get some of the satisfaction of guessing correctly, but also enjoy the surprises the author had in store for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Car accident, Confinement, Pregnancy, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Infidelity
vaguely_pink's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Out of the 3 Ruth Ware books I’ve read, this is easily my favorite and also her most like-able characters so far.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, Homophobia, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Pregnancy
Minor: Blood, Infidelity, Medical content, Sexism, Alcohol, and Classism
kalventure's review
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This book was somehow both what I expected and not at all what I thought it would be. I've heard a lot of fantastic things about Ruth Ware and being a fan of Agatha Christie I figured this book would be a fun one. Not saying that it wasn't, but I think my own impressions and expectations of what this book would be hampered my reading experience a bit.
What this book isn't: a locked room mystery or who-dun-it
What this book is: a mysterious past and family history uncovered piece by piece, with a tiny bit of thriller elements near the end
I don't know, maybe Knives Out just kind of lives in my head rent-free and the plot setup led my brain to make certain assumptions. In terms of what the book is: I enjoyed the mystery and how it unfolded, but I won't say more about that for obvious reasons.
Having personally grown up without a lot of money and experiencing my own periods of poverty, I relate a lot to Hal and her situation -- particularly to the intense guilt one feels for a small "splurge" like picking up fish & chips for your one meal of the day. The poverty representation, as well as the juxtaposition with her "family's" life of luxury, is well done without feeling like it is a main focus.
I found the narrative a little repetitious at times in the way that anxious thoughts spin around in our heads sometimes; it was a little off-putting to me because of the third-person perspective. This lead to a bit of an uneven reading experience for me where I would skim until things felt like they were progressing again.
Overall this was an enjoyable mystery to cozy up under a blanket and read over the course of a couple rainy days. I am looking forward to picking up The Woman in Cabin 10 at some point now that I've experienced Ware's writing style.
What this book isn't: a locked room mystery or who-dun-it
What this book is: a mysterious past and family history uncovered piece by piece, with a tiny bit of thriller elements near the end
I don't know, maybe Knives Out just kind of lives in my head rent-free and the plot setup led my brain to make certain assumptions. In terms of what the book is: I enjoyed the mystery and how it unfolded, but I won't say more about that for obvious reasons.
Having personally grown up without a lot of money and experiencing my own periods of poverty, I relate a lot to Hal and her situation -- particularly to the intense guilt one feels for a small "splurge" like picking up fish & chips for your one meal of the day. The poverty representation, as well as the juxtaposition with her "family's" life of luxury, is well done without feeling like it is a main focus.
I found the narrative a little repetitious at times in the way that anxious thoughts spin around in our heads sometimes; it was a little off-putting to me because of the third-person perspective. This lead to a bit of an uneven reading experience for me where I would skim until things felt like they were progressing again.
Overall this was an enjoyable mystery to cozy up under a blanket and read over the course of a couple rainy days. I am looking forward to picking up The Woman in Cabin 10 at some point now that I've experienced Ware's writing style.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol
Driving under the influencelinesiunderline's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I cannot seem to resist a Ruth Ware book, even though none of them has lingered with me for any length of time aside from The Turn of the Key, which I thought was very satisfyingly put together.
This one does Creepy Manderley-inspired Mansion vibes rather well. And I like the central premise that leaves you wondering who is deceiving whom. I found Hal to be sort of tiresome at times though.
The thing is, I fell asleep for a good hour one night listening to the audio and I didn’t feel all that inclined to go back and relisten to the part I’d missed, which says something. I finished it and felt kind of meh about the experience. In another mood, it’s atmospheric quality might have appealed more.
This one does Creepy Manderley-inspired Mansion vibes rather well. And I like the central premise that leaves you wondering who is deceiving whom. I found Hal to be sort of tiresome at times though.
The thing is, I fell asleep for a good hour one night listening to the audio and I didn’t feel all that inclined to go back and relisten to the part I’d missed, which says something. I finished it and felt kind of meh about the experience. In another mood, it’s atmospheric quality might have appealed more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Grief
Moderate: Alcohol, Car accident, Homophobia, Infidelity, Murder, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Confinement
ashleycmms's review against another edition
2.75
Anyone who knows me and my reading tastes knows I’m a super for family drama, dynamics, and relationships. I always enjoy it no matter if it’s possible, healthy, traumatic, fictional, or non-fiction. However, I went into this expecting a thriller/horror and figured out the antagonist 25% in. By 50% I figured out the plot twist. I read and watch a lot of horror/thriller content so it’s not unusable for me to be able to figure out what’s going to happen before I get there. However, what was a real let down for me was the sheer lack of concrete reasons as to WHY these things even came to happen. This is a story that relies heavily on backstory while simultaneously being incredibly vague about the events of the past. We get a few diary entries of the past that were very intriguing, but they often caused me to wonder more about what happened during that time. Especially to the main villain of this story. We get no reasoning, which I guess would be fine if the story was “some people are just evil” but there’s constant wording that “over time,” “something happened,” and “before and after.” So WHAT…. WHAT IS IT THAT HAPPENED?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Blood and Child abuse
Minor: Infidelity, Incest, and Alcohol
oakleylynch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
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? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Pregnancy, Car accident, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Infidelity, Alcohol, and Racial slurs
I saw another review where they tagged a Racial Slur use! I do not remember this but just as a warning I added it.roguefairy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Alcohol