Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

24 reviews

natasyareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Murder, Hate crime, Grief, Gaslighting, Death, Abandonment, Cursing, Blood, and Bullying

Minor: Alcohol, Rape, Gun violence, and Body shaming

ejoymiller11's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Rounded up from 3.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book and found it entertaining, but I do think it could’ve been better. The flashbacks to Daisy’s childhood, while providing some nice context, dragged on a little too much compared to the rushed ending. I understand the author was trying to help us understand the characters and their flaws, but it was so slow and dragged the pace down from the present-day murder mystery chapters. I definitely think we could’ve had quicker summaries of character flaws and used those extra pages at the end of the book. 
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The last 40 or so pages felt forced to me, like it was wrapped up a little too perfectly. While I love the twist of Daisy being dead the entire time (I totally had to go back and read some paragraphs!), I didn’t find Trixie’s motive realistic. I’m not sure I find murdering her entire family and turning herself into an underage orphan over a child aunt that died 15 years earlier believable. It just wasn’t compelling enough for me. I wish we had a longer ending and better explanation for Trixie’s motivations and justification. Nana’s made a little more sense to me, but it was still hard to find believable in my opinion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Murder, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Car accident, and Child death

Minor: Animal death, Pregnancy, Confinement, Infidelity, Abandonment, Bullying, Gun violence, and Sexual content

dayingst's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Abandonment, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Car accident

Minor: Physical abuse, Suicide, and Pregnancy

sophiesometimesreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

3.5

This was an interesting read, and I have some mixed feelings about it. I should preface this by saying the nature of the twist was, unfortunately, spoiled for me by social media the day I started this book so I think I did pick up on some foreshadowing that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise.

The characters were not likeable, even Daisy, who I felt we were supposed to sympathise with, I didn’t really connect with or feel much for. This is not necessarily a problem, but I just didn’t feel like I connected with these characters one way or the other.

The pacing was a bit all over the place and I felt like it dragged in places to just have the chapter end on a “cliffhanger” that was resolved early in the next chapter in a way that was kind of anti-climatic. 

The twist was interesting and different to what I’ve seen before but I felt like some of the foreshadowing was a bit too obvious in some places. Even though I did know the nature of this twist, I felt like it was mentioned enough times I would’ve picked up on some of it had I not know. It wasn’t very subtle about some of it, either.

For example, everyone outright ignored everything she said and the number of times it was explicitly stated that she was ignored made it kind of obvious something was up. And there was a large focus on death and ghosts throughout the book, as well.

Overall, I had a decent time reading this but I don’t think it’s a very memorable thriller for me; however, I do intend on reading more of Alice Feeney’s books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Murder, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Suicide

zalouis's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Car accident, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicide, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Medical content, Abandonment, Addiction, Medical trauma, Bullying, and Grief

sobbinghoursopen's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Child death, Mental illness, and Murder

amplawrence's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Gun violence, Child death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content and Sexual assault

uranaishi's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Child death, Car accident, Chronic illness, Murder, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Gore, Ableism, Blood, Body shaming, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Abandonment, and Gun violence

Minor: Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Dementia, Drug use, and Pregnancy

kshertz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

What a rollercoaster ride!! I love Alice’s books and I never can guess the twists. One twist I loved, the other I didn’t. I really thought I knew where they were going and I did not 😂. It’s a great who done it mystery novel and I definitely recommend it as excellent reading! It will keep you up though, it’s pretty scary at times. But I loved it!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Car accident, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Medical content, and Sexual content

cpachet's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.5

If you like Alice Feeney, this book does not feel like her other works. Typically I find she’s good at surprising me as a reader, but within the first few chapters, I predicted a major twist and spent the rest of the book until the reveal looking for clues to support my theory (I say this not as a brag, but because I was disappointed and felt unmotivated to keep reading). Few of the characters are redeemable

so when they started dying off one by one, I didn’t care and more relished their deaths. When Lily finally kicked it, I rejoiced. What an awful POS. Nana was cool and aside from Daisy, hers was the only death I was saddened by.

It’s a tragic tale of shitty parenting and monster siblings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Alcoholism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Blood, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Abandonment, Car accident, and Animal death