Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

12 reviews

emmysforeverbooked's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I fear this book will now be taking up every inch of my brain for the next three business weeks.

Maybe it was just my own personal ignorance, but I truly don't think I saw anything that happened in this book coming. I felt so utterly engaged with every turn of the page that I truly felt whiplash every time something new would happen.

I struggle a lot with books that don't have romance. I just, I don't know, it's in my nature to just want a happy ending. Which I think is why I struggle with enjoying thriller/mystery books. But this one had a very tiny romance subplot and it was just strong enough to have me not caring that there wasn't a ton of romance in this book.

This review has been all over the place but I end it by saying this: pick up this book. The only negative thing I have to say is that the first 40% or so is very slow-paced. I stuck it out and I am so glad I did because this might now be my favorite read of the year. 

Riley Sager, I need you to make this book into a movie. It would truly and completely fix me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Murder, Sexual assault, and Mental illness

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Suicide, Cursing, Death of parent, and Car accident

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, and Terminal illness

Don't let all the content warnings I have listed scare you off. This book to me was no scarier than your average Criminal Minds episode. If you can handle true crime shows, you can handle this book.

leahdanielle131's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Grief, Death, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Cancer, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Gaslighting

Minor: Vomit, War, Cursing, and Fire/Fire injury

mallory10100's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

oh my GOD???? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Blood, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Car accident, Child death, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Drug abuse, Grief, Medical content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Minor: Body shaming

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Riley Sager has a knack for writing a novel that you think is mediocre for the first half and then changing your mind in the last act. This book is widely accepted to be the “worst” of his thrillers but I was pleasantly surprised! I understand that people take issue with the protagonist being dumb and making horrible decisions, but I think the issue is more that people don’t enjoy an unreliable narrator who’s also self aware. She’s making decisions based on the fact that she doesn’t believe her own mind, and thats where things get dicey. Of course she’s going to do things that seem dumb to you, when, as the reader, you slowly grow to have more information than the protagonist (but… not really). It seems frustratingly obvious what she should be doing, but, as with much of Sager’s work, nothing is what it seems. My biggest critique is a massive spoiler, so read below at your own risk. 
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My main issue here (aside from the fact that we have yet another iteration of boyfriend/love interest is the villain) is that there are only 4 characters in this book, if you leave out Maddy and the cop. So, by the end, there’s realistically only two ways you can swing the plot: boyfriend is the serial killer, or the serial killer is unknown. Once you get to a certain point it becomes clear we aren’t going with an ambiguous ending, and therefore it can’t possibly be a surprise anymore who the killer is because the boyfriend is the ONLY option. So is it even a twist? There’s no other character in the book!!! Maybe the final twist with Robbie did it for some people, but for me I would’ve preferred a not-so-tidy ending. Using the boyfriend as the villain is just sooooooo…. Boring? Unoriginal? Obvious? Some combination of all of that. 
That said, what he did here with the OTHER 3 characters was nothing short of masterful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Death, Gaslighting, Blood, Car accident, Chronic illness, Murder, Suicide attempt, Cursing, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Medical content, Cancer, Vomit, and Terminal illness

clevelandbookgirl's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Car accident, Confinement, Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Grief, Blood, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Suicide attempt

Minor: Suicide and Cursing

tays_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Violence, Gun violence, Gaslighting, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Abandonment, Car accident, Cancer, and Stalking

emilymbrown's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Death of parent, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, and Body horror

Minor: Abandonment, Cancer, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

jillkaarlela's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

This suspenseful mystery really leans into the idea of getting swept up in movies and discerning between reality and fiction. The main character, Charlie, sees hallucinations, or “movies in her mind” and has a hard time discerning what is real after her friend was murdered, after Charlie left her behind at a bar after they got in a fight. Charlie was the only one who saw her friends murderer, but during a movie in her mind, and can’t discern if any of it was real. She gets so overwhelmed with grief and guilt for leaving her friend, that she has to leave the university. So she takes a ride with the first person she sees, Josh. But as the ride goes on, Charlie becomes highly suspicious of Josh, but can’t tell if these things are actually happening or if they are a movie in her mind. She has to figure out what is real, before it is too late. 
That concept of the “movies in her mind” kinda gets confusing as to what is real or not. I guess that’s the point, because the protagonist can’t tell what’s real, but it makes it a little bit harder to keep up. 
I also didn’t particularly like the brief change in focus/narrator because it was an unreliable narrator, and it was almost deceptive in the way it portrayed the characters in those chapters. It just kinda made me confused. I would’ve just chosen to not make the one or two chapters focused on the other characters. 
However, I did like this book. It was one of the better mystery suspense novels I’ve read in the past few months. Not the best by far, but it was fairly good, and interesting. I wouldn’t call this a thriller, but it is definitely a mystery suspense novel. 

ok, so I guess the whole thing was the movie, that took liberties in the story and changed some of the “actual events”. I guess that fits well with the theme, but again, it’s a little confusing. I do like that she and josh/Jake ended up together and got to make the movie. I didn’t expect it to be Robbie though, I guess I wasn’t thinking about it that much. I kinda thought the whole thing would’ve been a movie in her mind, and none of it would’ve happened. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Grief, Torture, Death, Gaslighting, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

Minor: Car accident, Suicide, Death of parent, and Suicide attempt

yodareads12's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

And he did it again! This author continues to amaze me at how well he can trip you up! I always think I know who the killer is, and I'm always wrong! Absolutely blows my mind!!

This particular story follows Charlie, a girl who recently lost her best friend to a serial killer still at large. She blames herself because she caught a glimpse of him the night her friend died, but can't remember any of his details. 

She ends up taking a ride with a someone to head back home to Ohio. And along the journey finds out there is more to this person than she originally thought. 

Really good thriller!! Absolutely amazing storyline! I was constantly getting stumped and surprised! There is cursing, but nothing sexual. Genre falls under Thriller. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing

bookishgoob's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

“People don’t want to admit that there are monsters in their midst, so the monsters continue to roam free and the cycle of violence and blame continues.” this is a story that takes place within 24 hours. the story kept me on the edge of my seat and i held my breath a lot. the story consumed me and made my heart race. such a great story told incredibly well. i don’t really like the way sager writes women, he writes them kind of dumb and sad but i enjoyed the way this book turned out. while i didn’t like the main character, or the way that she acted, i did think it added a cool element to the story, thinking about myself in the position and what i would do differently. the twists and turns of this story were so winding and confusing. i’m giving this a 4/5 for being such an interesting and fun book. the ending was super sweet and made me super happy. however, i can’t get over the way Charlie acted and was written. it just wasn’t my favorite thing. i do recommend it, though. it’s a great read and perfect for spooky season. TW// there is lots of gaslighting that happens in this book and can confuse you as the reader. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Body horror, Car accident, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, and Mental illness