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alindeman's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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
3.5
This is my second Karin Slaughter book. It’s not as interesting or well written as Pretty Girls, but it’s also not as disturbing. (This is still plenty disturbing tho). The mystery was interesting. I like Sara Linton and learning her story was heartbreaking. Jeffrey sucks. Like he almost doesn’t suck and then he’ll just do or say something (or not do or say something) and then I’m like yeah you suck. Lena is awful oh my god she’s insufferable Jesus Christ get therapy. So safe to say none of the characters are particularly likable which I think probably really takes away from things for me. I think I would like this book/series much more if I was strongly rooting for one or more characters. Like I like Sara but even then she does some stupid shit and I’m like why do I like you again?? Also the writing… idk it’s like not bad but there were a few times where the way Karin wrote something struck me as kind of problematic. Not even from the characters POV just like general narration. But yeah the only thing going for these books for me is the mystery of the crime.
Check TW for this book!!!!!
Plot summary for when I forget (major TW for violence & SA):
Sara Linton is the pediatrician and coroner for this small town. Her ex-husband is the sheriff. Sara goes to the bathroom in the town diner and finds a woman stabbed and dying. She tries to save her but she dies, she was murdered. This woman is the sister of a detective named Lena. Lena sucks she’s so mean but like mean bc has trauma and needs therapy. Desperately. I just can’t stand the characters who are like “I’m so tough fuck you I don’t need anyone, actually I’m crying on the inside but I won’t tell anyone” grow up! Anyways. The woman was killed in a seemingly ritualistic way, slashed in the form of a cross. No real suspects.
Then while Sara is at the hospital a woman is dumped on the hood of her car. She is still alive and Sara saves her. She has holes in her hands and feet and it’s clear she was in like a crucifixion pose. She was drugged with belladonna which is apparently like not a drug to be fucked around with its super tricky and lethal. She won’t talk to anyone. Finally Lena gets her to talk and obviously she’s super traumatized and Lena does such an awful fucking job interviewing her that the girl manages to steal her gun and kill herself. With the gun to her head Lena is still fucking INTERROGATING HER!!!! Basically the belladonna makes things like not hurt and gives you a flying feeling and in a way made her captivity more pleasant which made it more traumatic in the end bc she probably felt so much guilt and shame. And in response to the girl hinting at this Lena says “are you saying you enjoyed it?” And then she pulls the trigger. I hate Lena so fucking much what the fuck is wrong with you why would you say that?!??? She’s honestly such an awful cop she always says the wrong things.
So she’s dead sadly but the realize this is like super religious and ritualistic.
Jeffrey makes Lena take time off after the girls suicide and she gets kidnapped. We don’t know by who but we know she knows him. The story continues as she’s held captive, they don’t realize right away.
Sara’s sister tells Sara “you have to tell Jeffrey” and you’re like tell him what?? And she leaves a case file for him and you learn that when she was working at a hospital like one county over she was horrifically attacked. It seems kind of similar- she was raped by a religious dude who then stabbed her like Jesus was stabbed. Jeffrey loses his mind at his wife being hurt like that and wants to pay the offender a visit. He’s so sad for her but doesn’t know what to say and so just doesn’t contact her. Again, he was so close to being good and then he sucks. She bared her soul and he ignored her. So he visits the rapist who is NOT in prison (of fucking course) even tho he raped 2 more women after her. He’s on house arrest and is 1 strike away from going back to prison which he desperately doesn’t want to do. It doesn’t seem that he could be the perpetrator bc of his ankle monitor. Regardless Jeff wants to grill him. He breaks into his home and finds he has a gun- bingo that’s leverage. He confronts the dude and breaks his ankle monitor so his parole lady will show up. Based on how horrific Jeff’s case is she lets him talk to the rapist. He’s obviously psycho and he keeps tabs on Sara. The go over the case and it’s revealed that Sara’s car getting keyed with the word “cunt” wasn’t his doing which Jeff finds suspicious. He has the parole lady get him a list of the doctors Sara worked with but it doesn’t ring a bell.
Meanwhile they’re interviewing the bf of the girl who committed suicide, which is a piece of shit. He conveniently forgot to mention he saw her being dragged into a car by a man. Oops.
The girl had told Lena before she died that there was a persistent “clink clink clink” of dripping water.
Sara visits the house of the guy she’s kind of seeing, Jeb. And she hears the clink clink clink. So now you know it’s him. But she doesn’t.
She has a date with him. He’s at her house and brings wine. The wine is sour, like vinegar. Sara knows the victims were given vinegar. She is now on alert. Then he talks about his dead sister and shows her a photo. She recognizes the photo. The girl was a patient she treated who died from a botched at home abortion. Sara now knows he’s the killer (probably). She excuses herself to change and tries to call Jeff but the phone is off the hook. He follows her with a knife, he knows she knows. She jumps out the window, dives into the lake. He gets in a boat, chasing her. He crashes and capsizes. He can’t swim, he’s drowning. He sinks to the bottom. She doesn’t want him to die for some reason, maybe bc it’s too easy a death (that’s my thought) so she tries to rescue him but it’s freezing cold and he’s so heavy she’s totally about to die. Jeff arrives and saves her. He got a second list and turns out Jeb was a pharmacist working at the same hospital as her and the message “cunt” was found for every victim, including Lena (oh yeah they found her missing from her house).
Jeb is dead and they rescue Lena. I think that’s it
Check TW for this book!!!!!
Plot summary for when I forget (major TW for violence & SA):
Then while Sara is at the hospital a woman is dumped on the hood of her car. She is still alive and Sara saves her. She has holes in her hands and feet and it’s clear she was in like a crucifixion pose. She was drugged with belladonna which is apparently like not a drug to be fucked around with its super tricky and lethal. She won’t talk to anyone. Finally Lena gets her to talk and obviously she’s super traumatized and Lena does such an awful fucking job interviewing her that the girl manages to steal her gun and kill herself. With the gun to her head Lena is still fucking INTERROGATING HER!!!! Basically the belladonna makes things like not hurt and gives you a flying feeling and in a way made her captivity more pleasant which made it more traumatic in the end bc she probably felt so much guilt and shame. And in response to the girl hinting at this Lena says “are you saying you enjoyed it?” And then she pulls the trigger. I hate Lena so fucking much what the fuck is wrong with you why would you say that?!??? She’s honestly such an awful cop she always says the wrong things.
So she’s dead sadly but the realize this is like super religious and ritualistic.
Jeffrey makes Lena take time off after the girls suicide and she gets kidnapped. We don’t know by who but we know she knows him. The story continues as she’s held captive, they don’t realize right away.
Sara’s sister tells Sara “you have to tell Jeffrey” and you’re like tell him what?? And she leaves a case file for him and you learn that when she was working at a hospital like one county over she was horrifically attacked. It seems kind of similar- she was raped by a religious dude who then stabbed her like Jesus was stabbed. Jeffrey loses his mind at his wife being hurt like that and wants to pay the offender a visit. He’s so sad for her but doesn’t know what to say and so just doesn’t contact her. Again, he was so close to being good and then he sucks. She bared her soul and he ignored her. So he visits the rapist who is NOT in prison (of fucking course) even tho he raped 2 more women after her. He’s on house arrest and is 1 strike away from going back to prison which he desperately doesn’t want to do. It doesn’t seem that he could be the perpetrator bc of his ankle monitor. Regardless Jeff wants to grill him. He breaks into his home and finds he has a gun- bingo that’s leverage. He confronts the dude and breaks his ankle monitor so his parole lady will show up. Based on how horrific Jeff’s case is she lets him talk to the rapist. He’s obviously psycho and he keeps tabs on Sara. The go over the case and it’s revealed that Sara’s car getting keyed with the word “cunt” wasn’t his doing which Jeff finds suspicious. He has the parole lady get him a list of the doctors Sara worked with but it doesn’t ring a bell.
Meanwhile they’re interviewing the bf of the girl who committed suicide, which is a piece of shit. He conveniently forgot to mention he saw her being dragged into a car by a man. Oops.
The girl had told Lena before she died that there was a persistent “clink clink clink” of dripping water.
Sara visits the house of the guy she’s kind of seeing, Jeb. And she hears the clink clink clink. So now you know it’s him. But she doesn’t.
She has a date with him. He’s at her house and brings wine. The wine is sour, like vinegar. Sara knows the victims were given vinegar. She is now on alert. Then he talks about his dead sister and shows her a photo. She recognizes the photo. The girl was a patient she treated who died from a botched at home abortion. Sara now knows he’s the killer (probably). She excuses herself to change and tries to call Jeff but the phone is off the hook. He follows her with a knife, he knows she knows. She jumps out the window, dives into the lake. He gets in a boat, chasing her. He crashes and capsizes. He can’t swim, he’s drowning. He sinks to the bottom. She doesn’t want him to die for some reason, maybe bc it’s too easy a death (that’s my thought) so she tries to rescue him but it’s freezing cold and he’s so heavy she’s totally about to die. Jeff arrives and saves her. He got a second list and turns out Jeb was a pharmacist working at the same hospital as her and the message “cunt” was found for every victim, including Lena (oh yeah they found her missing from her house).
Jeb is dead and they rescue Lena. I think that’s it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Body horror, Blood, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, Death, Rape, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Violence
Minor: Addiction and Drug abuse
hambo221's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Medical content
Minor: Racism
xanthippe's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Addiction, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Body horror, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Abortion, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Stalking, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Excrement, Infertility, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Torture
mec4's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Slaughter slaughtered me with this book. I am such a fan of Karins exploration of dark themes that typically are not presented, and the depravity that breeds true fear. It makes for an excellent book that is a consistent page turner throughout. I like the plot twists, but the ending fell a little short. I typically like a well explained and thorough ending, but for this book being the first in a series, I am very very happy with the read. It is quite disturbing so the multitude of low ratings for Karins vivid violence dont make sense. All of her books in some way encompass tragedy, depravity and violence. She does it so well, it forces us to look true fear in the face.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence and Sexual assault
fireborndevil's review
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Incest
quinnoriel's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Sexual harassment, Racism, Incest, Sexual content, Murder, Medical trauma, Violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, Grief, Excrement, Gore, Infertility, Torture, Suicide, Medical content, Body horror, Alcoholism, Stalking, and Self harm
kryskross's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Rape, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Violence
melaneyp's review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Incest, Abortion, Stalking, Gore, Blood, Rape, Infertility, Grief, Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Murder, Pedophilia, Miscarriage, Medical content, Death, and Medical trauma
jhabelita's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.75
SpoOctober Read #1:
Perfect if you're a Criminal Minds TV series fan. This is the most graphic gory scene I've ever read and it is just chapter 1 mah frend. May mga scenes lang na dragging masyado to the point that I find it unneccesary. BUT it will all make sense when you reach 85%. Dun na ilalapag ang twist. Unfortunately, nahulaan ko sino yung killer but hindi nag matter agad saken WHY he's the killer. So you'll continue reading it. Also, I like her cliffhangers at the end of every chapter. Personally, hindi ako pinatulog so I ended up sleep deprived after finishing this.
This is my first Karin Slaughter book and probably not the last. *well, I just bought 2 more KS preloved books ehehehe*
TW: rape, suicide, assault, incest
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide
mandalaynen's review
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? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Murder, and Suicide