Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Quiet Tenant

Great thriller. While I wish there was an epilogue from Cecelia, just to get her view, still a 5 star read for me. I did the audio and it was immaculate.

Content Warnings

__onemorechapter_'s review

Go to review page

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

I was intrigued from beginning until the near end. The second person POV really made the story. I would have appreciated more repercussions for Aidan and more healing for May/Rachel.

Content Warnings

a_libraryghost's review

Go to review page

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.25

This is definitely a book that is hard to put down and I was always scared for the characters and wanting to know what was going to happen next. What prevents this from being a 5 star is I don’t think Cecelia’s POV was used to its full potential, she has far less chapters than the other two and I would’ve preferred to learn a bit more about her and see her develop a bit more. I really like her though and think she was written as a fairly realistic 13 year old.

The other thing is I do agree with other reviewers that Emily could be quite an annoying character to read. I don’t think I found her as annoying as some others because I understood the point of her character and why her perspective was important to the story, but she does make some odd decisions in the latter half of the book and I don’t think her entire world needed to revolve around Aidan the way it did.

The ending was pretty great but could have been better. The last scene was awkward and I didn’t like it, and I also wish we could have gotten some of Cecelia’s POV. The actual escape though was *chefs kiss*.

Content Warnings

ms_sarah621's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad 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

4.5

I do not have words for how I feel about this book. This is a phenomenal thriller. This was heartbreaking, triggering, powerful, and so tense. The descriptions, the writing, the plot, the characters are all so well done. I felt like I was experiencing things with the characters. Everything was described so deeply and so fleshed out. The dynamics and the different relationships throughout were incredible. The only reason I’m not giving it a 5 is mostly because I really wish we could have had more chapters with Cecelia and/or Caroline. I felt like the Emily chapters were an uncomfortable perspective, rather than focusing on the women in Aiden’s life for much longer and more personal in their relationship. However, the story is still amazing and works with the Emily perspective. It’s made to be an uncomfortable book, and I devoured it.

Content Warnings

meeklovestoread's review

Go to review page

dark slow-paced

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

2.75

I was pretty excited about this one. I saw the hype it was getting on Bookstagram. A lot of 5 stars so I was pretty anxious to get my hands on it. I think around chapter 3 I knew I wasn't going to like it. Then I got halfway and wanted to dnf it so bad but I was already was halfway and the book was short so I was like might as well finish it. But even as I was getting near the finish line, all I wanted was for it to end. I was originally going to give it three stars but decided to lower it a bit more because there was really nothing that I liked about this book. I don't hate it by any means but there's nothing good that comes to mind when I recount my reading experience of this book.

I know we were supposed to root for the main character "Rachel" (I honestly thought the use of her 2nd personal POV was a nice touch), but she was just too frantic and unhinged and too stupid

like she has two+ opportunities to escape before and the first time she literally tries to kidnap Cecilia instead of just hightailing her butt out of there and the second time the door was literally wide open for her and she didn't open [which I get, the whole abuser have a hold on you thing], but still; and her weird obsession with his daughter made no sense to me, like you don't even know her!

to root for her. I know we get a look into her past in a few chapters, but just like with the writing of this story it's all so surface-level and cryptic and ambiguous; it feels like most of the things in this book are left up to interpretation which is fine to a certain degree but that's literally what most of this book was, just full a surface level descriptions.

None and I mean NONE of the characters were flushed out at all. Emily his supposed next "victim" is weirdly obsessed with this man (Aidan; the killer) for some reason who is about 2x her age with a kid. And her storyline basically runs on the fact that she's weirdly obsessed and "in love" with this grown man. Also, him choosing Emily to be his next victim literally made no sense considering she's local to his town and people have seen them together multiple times. Also, her being his next victim is inferred and never directly told to us.

Cecilia, the daughter, I honestly don't even know why she's here. She didn't serve as much of a big plot point to me and she was very one-dimensional like everyone else in this book. And Aidan, you'd think he'd be the most interesting character in this book and he is but that's not saying much cuz he's a flat character too. We learn that he had a wife who died of cancer and that he was a former Marine who worked as a hospital corpsman and now he's a lineman. And the basic serial killer profile, that he's meticulous and clean and needs power. Again, one dimensional. Did he actually love his wife? We don't know. Did his wife know? We don't know. What possessed him to keep Rachel for as long as he did? We don't know. How does he choose his victims? We don't know. Why does he have these tendencies? We don't know. So many unanswered questions.

And the ending. Very anticlimactic. I think the author was going for a "women's intuition telepathy" with the three girls (Emily, "Rachel", and Cecelia) to symbolize some sisterhood between them, but it just didn't work.

That scene where "Rachel" abducts Cecilia at gunpoint and forces her to run with her from her own dad and we as the reader are just supposed to believe that Cecilia would choose this stranger that has been nothing but weird to her and has tried to kidnap her before over her own father. Like, be for real?! And the part where Emily "distracts" Aidan for a second so "Rachel" can have time to escape him makes no sense. She's literally been obsessed with this man the whole book how could she have put two and two together like that? She's literally only interacted with "Rachel" TWICE before that. You expect me to believe she chose this woman whom she doesn't even know, who abducts her lover's kid over her lover because "a woman knows". Again, BE FOR REAL! So stupid!

This book also (in my opinion) doesn't belong in the thriller genre because there was nothing thrilling about this book. I remember reading it and thinking how this sort of reads like a memoir or a literary fiction piece. There was no suspense; I was not on the edge of my seat; I just wanted it to be over!

Content Warnings

y2kaitlyn's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Content Warnings

More...