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jane_moriarty's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
What started as a mediocre thriller with a decent premise took absolutely ridiculous turns in the second half. And not in a fun way. The story could have been ridiculous but thrilling, with the opportunity for an interesting cat and mouse game. But the writing is just lazy, the plot twists make no sense, the bad guys are laughable, and the final ending... I don't wanna spoil it, but let's just say Charlie went all in for the grand finale of stupid, stupid life choices.
This was my second Riley Sager book and it was even worse than Final Girls, so I think I should just call it quits.
Graphic: Gaslighting
Moderate: Mental illness, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Death of parent and Car accident
mallory10100's review against another edition
- 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
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
noxygens's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
Graphic: Blood, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Torture, Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Violence, Car accident, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
elle_e_d_light's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
I've read nearly every Sager book, and his protagonists tend to follow a pattern: they lack a good support system, they make unbelievably stupid decisions, and they only get the man if the man is sketch. In this way, Charlie is truly the peak Sager Girl.
But hey, I guess not every heroine can be Sydney Prescott. Some have to be Tess from Barbarian, making the worst choices yet still making it out alive.
Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Car accident, Grief, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence
amanda_reads13's review against another edition
- 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
2.5
Towards the end of the book, it picked up a bit, but overall, I found this book pretty predictable. The twist that she was kidnapped by Maddie's grandmother was an interesting spin, but turned out to be pretty lackluster.
Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Gun violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death, and Fire/Fire injury
thevioletfoxbookshop's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Car accident, Death, and Murder
cady_sass's review against another edition
- 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
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Spoiler below:
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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.
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
greatestheights's review against another edition
I wanted to like Charlie. I wanted to like this plot. I wanted so many, many things, namely for Charlie to get out of the goddamn car and/or take ANY of the numerous opportunities she had to get tf away from this terrible situation. I thought I was going to lose my mind when a cop was literally RIGHT THERE and she still willingly GOT BACK IN THE CAR WITH A DUDE SHE THOUGHT WAS A VICIOIS SERIAL KILLER.
Also, we need to talk about how bad Sager is at writing women and mental illness. Just
stop, buddy. After The Last Time I Lied and now this, I think I'm solidly done with this author.
Alllll of that said, I devoured the book in less than 24 hours, so props to Sager and the audibook narrator. I also was genuinely surprised with one twist and pleased with myself that I guessed the second. Is it weird that I enjoyed listening to this book and simultaneously hated it? Probably, and that's why I gave it an extra star.
Graphic: Car accident, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Sexism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Terminal illness
abbiemreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I liked the tense parts but honestly saw the twists coming and it felt like adding in the other perspectives from Charlie’s was because the author didn’t trust their readers to understand what was happening
Graphic: Grief and Kidnapping
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Suicide, Mental illness, Gun violence, and Toxic relationship
rachelunabridged's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to reading is authors who lie to the reader and try to pass it off as a twist. and this whole book is based on that concept. needless to say, i was not into it.
for one thing, i hated the idea of the pov character "seeing movies in her mind". it's one of my least favorite thriller tropes because it's so easy to abuse. to be fair, it was revealed at the beginning of the book instead of busting it out at the end like usual, but a shitty trope is still a shitty trope no matter where you place it in the story. as soon as charlie started about the movies in her head, i immediately disconnected from the story. i went straight from excitedly looking forward to trying to predict the ending of the book to waiting around for the author to inevitably tell me this or that was ACTUALLY in the mc's head all along. so fun.
i wasn't a fan of charlie either. i spent so much time internally screaming at the bad decisions she repeatedly made. like ever getting into the car when she knew a serial killer was on the loose. or not immediately exiting the car when things got creepy. then we find out at the end that she MARRIED the kidnapper who was gaslighting her! since there was a reference to stockholm syndrome earlier in the book, i wondered if that might have been intentional, but intentional or not, i was ready to chuck this book out the window when i read it.
as if that weren't enough, we get to the end of the book and find out that the whole thing was an adaptation of what actually happened... like a big cherry lie on the sundae of lies. that immediately dropped the book from three to two stars for me, and i'm sorely tempted to knock it down to one.
tl;dr
an underwhelming, disappointing read that might've had potential, but was poorly executed.
Graphic: Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Minor: Suicide attempt