Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

49 reviews

wy_woman's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Grief, Blood, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Rape, Kidnapping, Gore, and Car accident

Minor: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Infertility, Miscarriage, Mental illness, and Medical content

readchelsearead's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Child death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Incest

eeculp's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

Quick fun read! Like a lot of these, I figured out most of it but there is one final surprise at the very end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Self harm, Pedophilia, Rape, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcoholism

shiran_fa's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Kidnapping, Blood, Animal death, Alcoholism, and Child death

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Car accident, Chronic illness, and Kidnapping

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Incest, Grief, Infidelity, and Medical content

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

kaylahcc's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, and Animal death

Moderate: Incest, Child death, and Alcoholism

bmadrid's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, and Child death

sydfreeman's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

I love Paula Hawkins as an author, and this book was another fun one. Good range of personalities between the characters, small time jumps or flashbacks that really enhance the story, and moments that stick with you. Great weekend read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Murder, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Blood

Info about biggest portion of murder / kidnapping / sexual assault in this book :

the flashback scenes Miriam (boat lady) has are where the primary kidnapping and sexual adult / murder will occur. Additional murder is theme of the book

laurena's review against another edition

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

juci's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Normally I’m a slow reader, but I finished this book in a day and a half. Although, I’d say it’s medium-paced - at times slower while sometimes (especially towards the end) much more fast-paced.

The story is complex enough that it kept me engaged and interested in trying to figure out the mysteries and find the missing pieces by myself. Without giving any spoilers, I just want to say I appreciated that while some parts of the puzzle were easy to put together, there were a few twists throughout the book, even towards the very end, which caught me by surprise. In the end, I felt satisfied when everything finally clicked.

Most of the characters are quite unlikable in my opinion, but that feels intentional - they’re raw, imperfect, and complex. There aren’t clear “good” or “bad” characters, which I appreciate. It gives more depth and realness to the story.

I also like Hawkins’ writing style and found the nonlinear timeline (constantly jumping back and forth in time to tell the story) fitting for this novel. It’s funny that at one point one of the characters is reading another character’s book and criticizes this exact style of writing, saying
“Like the last one, that awful crime thing. Just start at the beginning, for God’s sake. Why couldn’t people just tell a story any longer, from start to finish?”
Then Hawkins proceeds to do that exact thing again, jumping back in time to give us another piece of the puzzle. This is just a small thing that stuck with me, but there are lots of small lines like that in the book, which I found pretty clever, and I thought they gave another layer to the novel.

All in all, an enjoyable read, and I’d definitely recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Murder, Child death, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, and Cursing

Minor: Incest