Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Survive the Night by Riley Sager

97 reviews

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

hunkydory's review against another edition

dark 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: Death, Mental illness, Violence, Kidnapping, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Gaslighting, Gun violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Cancer, Suicide attempt, and Car accident

brookey8888's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.75

I actually enjoyed this a lot. I’m not going to lie some of it didn’t make the most sense and was added just for plot( I’m not going to spoil, but the 20 questions doesn’t make sense with what we learn later to me). I didn’t really guess any of this except one thing which I think was pretty obvious at that point. Charlie is kind of an idiot so if you don’t like reading about characters making stupid decisions then skip this one. That being said I did really like Charlie. 
I’ve said this in at least one of my reviews for Riley Sager, but he has a formula with the males and it’s easy to figure out if they’re going to be “good” or “bad”. As for the ending I liked it, but then something happened and I didn’t really like the “true ending”, which is why I didn’t round up to a four star. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence

kimberlyswalters's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gaslighting, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Terminal illness, Car accident, Cancer, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Violence, Mental illness, Gun violence, and Vomit

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

noxygens's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

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

fraise's review against another edition

dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Death of parent, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Ableism, Death, Gun violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident, Cancer, Torture, Terminal illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Rape

laurenvoice's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

Survive the Night was a tense and thrilling read with plenty of twists and turns!

The leading characters in Survive the Night were well-rounded, and you could feel their emotions through the words on the pages. Charlie's character development was phenomenal, although she should have trusted her gut instincts more. And Josh’s character was interesting; the web of lies he spun and that killer vibe he had was a nice touch; it made some of the twists and turns this story took more surprising.

Marge’s character introduction was a surprise, I thought she would slow the story down a bit, but no, she added more depth to Maddy. And she helped not only Charlie’s character development but the story's development too. Thanks to the detour to the Skyline Grille, we saw some great twists within the story and some tense scenes for Charlie and Josh.

It would have been great to get an insight into Maddy's and Robbie's characters without Charlie’s rose-tinted glasses, although the end hinted that they were different to how Charlie described and saw them. However, Charlie being an unreliable narrator made Survive the Night fun, as it was impossible to predict what was coming next!

The end chapter was proof that we should not trust the whole story. Charlie reveals that this was a movie based on her real life, but the director embellished the story for a more dramatic effect. The nineties setting was fun, and the repeated plays of the song Come as You Are were a nice touch. However, what made Survive the Night stand out was that Sager wrote it like a movie.

However, if I had to nitpick, it would be how Josh gaslighting and manipulating Charlie was forgiven too quickly and never addressed properly between both characters. Also, I found the final showdown and revelation of the Campus Killer seemed rather rushed when considering how well-paced some of the other events in the book were.

Survive the Night is the second book I have read by Riley Sager, the first being Final Girls, and I am shocked by the number of dislikes his books have gotten because the two books I have read have hooked me. I have been putting off reading most of his because of the negative reviews, but I am glad Survive the Night premise looked too good to miss, as it was an incredible journey filled with movie magic! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Kidnapping, and Violence

Minor: Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Death of parent, and Suicide attempt

finnsnowbevi's review against another edition

I can't get over how slow-paced this is & how obviously it is that the book was written by a man. I hate saying "write what you know" but...write what you know.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, Death of parent, Violence, Blood, Death, and Grief

eaviles's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Domestic abuse, and Mental illness