Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

15 reviews

robbiclaire's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Ableism, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Medical trauma and Emotional abuse

Minor: Child abuse

nicoles_reading_corner's review against another edition

challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Child death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Death, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Car accident, Infertility, and Kidnapping

laurena's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I’m not sure why everyone thought this was twisty turny. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

youcancallmefi's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

3.25

I really struggled to make sense of what was going in and didn't relate to any of the characters. the story became so confused as at some point I wasn't sure if the initial death was the main point of the story anymore. Just kept reading to make sure my suspicions of the murder were correct.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Murder

thebakerbookworm's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

You probably know Paula Hawkins from The Girl on the Train fame, which I have to admit I wasn't a huge fan of. I don't really remember why as I read it a few years ago and didn't write myself a review, but I remember being disappointed and not getting all the hype. So I went into this one with a little trepidation. And thankfully I was pleasantly surprised!

First off, Rosamund Pike doing the narration was fantastic! I was captivated the whole time and I loved her different voices for the characters. I highly recommend going the audio route for this one!

Secondly, the characters, though not really likable, were interesting and succeeded in making me feel empathy for them, even if I was annoyed with their choices. Though I must say, they've all been through A LOT of trauma, so beware the content warnings. And I think most of them even got some nice development over the course of the story. Not a ton, but enough to where they look different by the end.

The mystery and plot were compelling enough to keep me reading. I managed to figure out some things, so I was a little disappointed that I wasn't very surprised by the ending, but I still liked how it wrapped things up for the most part. Overall, a really good quick thriller if you're looking for something to get lost in for a while.

Thanks so much to Libro.fm, Penguin Audio, and the author for my ALC!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Dementia, Rape, and Animal death