Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

216 reviews

hotdrinks's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Really vivid atmosphere! I cared a lot about the characters.

Kind of exposition heavy at the end. I usually really hate exposition and clean endings where most everything is answered, but honestly I just really loved Ted from the beginning, so it was nice seeing them get a happy ending. It's also very refreshing to see DID used in a mystery and not end up being the source of the horror. Even though there is a happy ending, there's still a good bit of tragedy with Dee's story. Over all I really liked it!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Stalking, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Child death, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Murder, Ableism, and Blood

heartofhorrors's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Self harm, Murder, Kidnapping, Death, Confinement, Child abuse, Torture, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Grief, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Medical content, Gore, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Child death, Blood, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

hellobecca's review against another edition

mysterious 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

3.0

Listened to the audio book, great narrator who changed up their voice really well.

The actual book was okay, twisty and confusing.

The multiple revelations are good and questions get answered but I just felt a little unsatisfied at the direction the story went.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Kidnapping

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Confinement, Torture, Suicide, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Death, Emotional abuse, and Child death

atiek's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Physical abuse, Animal death, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Torture, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Vomit

brianna_moye's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Self harm, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Medical content, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

notlikethebeer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

As a side-note: I'VE HIT MY GOODREADS CHALLENGE!!!!!

That aside, this was a fun book - I read it as part of an office book club, I don't think I'd have come across it otherwise but I'm glad I did. I enjoyed how twisty and turny it was, there were so many twists that I think it'd be practically impossible to predict all of them. I do feel like there were some parts that were unexplored, for example I feel like

Dee's death

didn't really do that character justice - although it was fun to talk about that particular character with the rest of the book club, as we all had some very different views. It was also really fun to talk about the SNAKES, and the symbolism they may or may not have had... Regarding the portrayal of

DID

, it does sound like the author did her best to research and create an accurate portrayal. I really don't know enough to comment, although I tend to be wary of books that

use mental illness as a plot twist

. It did also frustrate me that, at the end,

it felt like Ted's attachment issues and trauma were quite easily resolved

- I wish it could be that damn easy in real life!!

Overall it was probably a 3.5 for me - interestingly, as a book club we gave it an average of 3.78! I definitely really liked talking about it in book club, and it added a lot to my experience of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Confinement, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

chris_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Mental illness, Confinement, Dysphoria, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Stalking

Moderate: Death, Blood, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Gore, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

Minor: Torture, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Animal death

lizzietish101's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I never saw anything coming. Constant twists and turns. Every time I thought I figured it out, I was wrong! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Murder

jareadforfilth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Wow… All I can say is WOW. This book blew my freakin mind, it begins (and remains) so dark throughout, but the twists in here flip everything you think you know on its head… and then does it again and I never saw it coming. The way this book shook me can not be overstated. I remember being 100 pages from the end like how can there be more?!? But when I tell you those last 100 pages annihilated me in the most satisfying of ways?!

the way I was lowkey rooting for Dee and BEGGING for Ted’s downfall and the safe return of Lulu only for everything to be reversed was WILD!! And it is so true what Ward says: this is a story about survival. When we find out Olivia is a personality within Lauren I gagged, but when we found out they were both within Ted?!? GIRL!!!!! AND THEN THAT DEE BASICALLY LET HER SISTER DIE?!? AND SHE WAS KILLED BY SNAKES AND SO WAS DEE?!?!?!? Not only the justice of that moment but the POETRY in it, I can’t even. And I’m so so soooo happy that Ted is finally given an opportunity to move forward. What a horrible hard life, it breaks your heart.

This book is incredible, for horror fans it is a MUST.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Alcoholism, Gore, and Kidnapping

shortstackmayor's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Mental illness, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Blood and Animal cruelty