Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

11 reviews

browsingthebooks's review against another edition

5.0

Totally gripping mystery. Unique format that forces you to play detective. Great for discussion!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Toxic friendship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Child death, Torture, Rape, Cancer, Trafficking, Murder, Drug use, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Excrement, Death, Addiction, and Child abuse

This was actually a really clean book as compared to a lot of contemporary mystery novels. Only a couple of curses in the whole thing. No sexual content. Most of the warnings I listed as minor were just references.

atalea's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Toxic friendship, and Mental illness

Moderate: Bullying, Murder, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Child abuse

Minor: Child death, Excrement, Pregnancy, Vomit, Rape, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Infertility, and War

bessadams's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Murder, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Medical content, Excrement, Pregnancy, and Medical trauma

librarianlirael's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Murder, Medical content, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Addiction, and Cancer

quiet_reader's review against another edition

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Infidelity, Excrement, Sexual assault, Addiction, Drug abuse, Body shaming, and Drug use

alisonannk's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical content, Terminal illness, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, Cancer, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Infidelity

Moderate: Death and Child abuse

Minor: Excrement

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I can't say too much about this book plot-wise because honestly I feel like you're better off going into it a bit blind the way that I did. However, of course, there's a synopsis available if you do wanna read it, I can't tell you what to do. I'm the boss of me, not you.

What I can tell you is that this is a murder mystery wherein you are provided texts, emails, and other bits of evidence for the case and are basically meant to solve it alongside the two young lawyers, Femi and Charlotte. I loved how this book was written *so* much. I'm nosey, so I loved the feel of reading people's emails and snooping around their shit. Plus, I really enjoyed actively trying to solve the mystery. I broke my tabs out, I got out my pen and my journal, and got to work. I simply had the best time. I can't BELIEVE that this is a debut novel. This author is a total auto-buy for me from here on out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Murder, Medical content, Mental illness, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Body horror, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Child death, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, and Addiction

Moderate: Misogyny, Stalking, Excrement, Rape, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal death, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Vomit

odrib's review against another edition

challenging funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Cancer, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Child abuse, and Stalking

Moderate: Bullying, Murder, Death, and Medical content

Minor: Infidelity, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Infertility, Addiction, Child death, and Excrement

booksjessreads's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I absolutely sailed through this due to its faced-paced nature and I have never seen a book written in this way before. It was really interesting to have a mystery to solve yourself without the flowery prose of scenes and detectives getting in the way. It was really engaging to have you yourself being at the centre of solving the crime. 

When I bought this book, I expected it to be <i>purely</i> emails, texts etc. with a page at the end telling you if you got it right, but this is not what you get. Emails and texts make a large chunk of it, but you do actually see the correspondence of the people trying to solve the crime alongside you and their texts to one another summarise the events that have just happened, as well as posing questions that help you along the way. You are not completely left to your own devices. It is really interesting to see their thought processes alongside your own. 

Each group of characters has their own subplot going on, and they all intermingle in their own way. In the beginning it was quite hard to piece together who was who and what subplot belonged to which family/set of relations. However, when you become engrossed in the book it completely encapsulates you and it does start to make sense. I think this is what knocked me from giving it 5 stars - there were too many characters in it for me. However, I think this in itself was carried off so well and so realistic because real-life crimes involve a lot of people in the periphery and so despite this, it was so cleverly done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Murder, and Child death

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Miscarriage, and Excrement

embey's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Genuinely one of the most genius books I've ever read. Un-put-downable to the point of interfering with work.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Colonisation, Death, Excrement, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Cancer, Mental illness, Murder, and War

Minor: Racism and Torture