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jlk's review against another edition
challenging
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Blood, and Drug use
weewiz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
The character perspective make the book hard to get through sometimes but the side characters are one of the only redeeming things about the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Drug use
othersociologist's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Violence, Suicide, Bullying, Drug use, and Child death
cheerfulcusp's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Mental illness, and Drug use
coffeespooncait's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Suicide, Child death, and Murder
Moderate: Xenophobia, Mental illness, Transphobia, and Drug use
kermit_the_wrong's review
Disappointingly didn't finish due to the blatant transphobia and racist stereotypes. The story was interesting, but was not as dark or gripping as I had hoped.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia and Suicide
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Racism, and Drug use
ro_lux's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Body horror, Gore, Suicide, and Transphobia
Moderate: Cancer, Fatphobia, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Alcohol, Car accident, Grief, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Confinement, Violence, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Racism
michelles_book_nook's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
โ ๏ธ TW: suicide, death, brief mentions of child murder, mental health, graphic content, sexual assault, rape, spiking, drug use/abuse, animal abuse, satanic/occult rituals โ ๏ธ
Wow this book had me hooked from the very beginning and it blew my mind!! ๐คฏ This book follows an investigative journalist, Scott McGrath, who goes on a wild journey of trying to get to the bottom of the apparent suicide of a cult horror director's daughter. However, this isn't his first run in with the Cordova family and last time he lost his career and marriage but this time his sanity and life could be at stake. Honestly this book is impeccably written and uses so many elements to draw you in and make you feel like you are investigating this case alongside McGrath in such a perfect way that you will not be able to stop thinking about it! It is so hard to review without giving away spoilers and even though this is a CHONK of a book I highly recommend it. Marisha Pessl is a brand new author to me and I'm dying to get my hands on more of her work. Overall, this book is incredible if you are into horror/thriller and crime mysteries but please read the TW's around this book before going into it because some of the subject matter is very heavy.
Wow this book had me hooked from the very beginning and it blew my mind!! ๐คฏ This book follows an investigative journalist, Scott McGrath, who goes on a wild journey of trying to get to the bottom of the apparent suicide of a cult horror director's daughter. However, this isn't his first run in with the Cordova family and last time he lost his career and marriage but this time his sanity and life could be at stake. Honestly this book is impeccably written and uses so many elements to draw you in and make you feel like you are investigating this case alongside McGrath in such a perfect way that you will not be able to stop thinking about it! It is so hard to review without giving away spoilers and even though this is a CHONK of a book I highly recommend it. Marisha Pessl is a brand new author to me and I'm dying to get my hands on more of her work. Overall, this book is incredible if you are into horror/thriller and crime mysteries but please read the TW's around this book before going into it because some of the subject matter is very heavy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, Drug abuse, and Drug use
Moderate: Suicide, Death, Mental illness, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Child death
madarauchiha's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
โค๏ธ ๐งก ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐งก โค๏ธ
What a fuck.
Ok the depth and miscellania of the world setting was fucking fantastic. It felt like a very solid ground to such a convoluted mystery. Who is Cordova? No actually you should be asking where is Ashley? No actually you should be asking something else! The questions kept piling up.
ok not to be a huge loser but this mc dude does remind me a whole lot of Alan wake from the titular game 'Alan wake'. An unlikeable on purpose protagonist, mostly decent motive albeit totally self serving. He's very well written so far and it's not entirely grating to read. I still want to beat his ass though. And at some point it felt like it was glancing the fourth wall, becoming bizarrely self aware.
Also the multimedia portion of the book? Stunning. The newspaper clippings, screencaps, websites, really added something amazing to the story. I liked the additional, brief view points these gave, and how they broke up the story so it wasn't an endless asshole investigating this mystery.
I really loved the ending. I think it maintained the ambiguity of the mystery very well. The story was strong enough that I don't mind this type of closure, either. Is it supernatural? Or is it something else? What was that cheesy phrase? The greatest lie the devil ever told was that the devil doesn't exist.
I never reread books, but this one I'll make the exception for.
Transmisogyny in the book. Major spoilers.
hey look there's a godawful scene where the MC goes to a ultra secret dark underground super exclusive rich people club that apparently Cordova frequented from time to time. The author and MC make a huge deal about WHOA there's transwomen here wha t the? This also comes up briefly later in some 'that woman from the club... or WAS she a 'woman'...?!?!?' speculation that the MC does.
It's utterly jarring and took me out of the plot because, to me, it's not a big deal. Oh a woman at a location where women go to, whatever. I get that the author is making the MC a purposefully unlikeable character but I think this goes a lil too far. At that point in the book, it's pretty well established the MC is a piece of shit.
Because we're discussing this I'll mention that I'm transmisogyny exempt trans nonbinary person. Just to be clear this is the pov that I am seeing this content from.
Major ableism, alcohol use, anti japanese racism, anti native racism, antiblack racism, body shaming, bullying, child abuse, classism, fatphobia, death, dogs, drowning, drug abuse, gore, hand trauma, misgendering, misogyny, paranoia, psychiatric institutions, racial fetishization, sibling rivalry, sinophobia, suicide, suicide baiting, transmisogyny, xenophobia
medium ableism towards addiction, divorce, drowning, fatphobia, fungus, gore, insects, kidnapping, marital infidelity, misogyny, paranoia, parasites, pedophilia, grooming, age gap
drug use , unsanitary
minor Charles manson mention, Islamophobia, anti Japanese j slur used once, cults, death threats, genocide, human trafficking, pedophilia, quentin tarantino, self harm, sexual abuse, sexual content, tasteless torture camp reference, teacher student relationship, torture, water boarding joke
What a fuck.
Ok the depth and miscellania of the world setting was fucking fantastic. It felt like a very solid ground to such a convoluted mystery. Who is Cordova? No actually you should be asking where is Ashley? No actually you should be asking something else! The questions kept piling up.
ok not to be a huge loser but this mc dude does remind me a whole lot of Alan wake from the titular game 'Alan wake'. An unlikeable on purpose protagonist, mostly decent motive albeit totally self serving. He's very well written so far and it's not entirely grating to read. I still want to beat his ass though. And at some point it felt like it was glancing the fourth wall, becoming bizarrely self aware.
Also the multimedia portion of the book? Stunning. The newspaper clippings, screencaps, websites, really added something amazing to the story. I liked the additional, brief view points these gave, and how they broke up the story so it wasn't an endless asshole investigating this mystery.
I really loved the ending. I think it maintained the ambiguity of the mystery very well. The story was strong enough that I don't mind this type of closure, either. Is it supernatural? Or is it something else? What was that cheesy phrase? The greatest lie the devil ever told was that the devil doesn't exist.
I never reread books, but this one I'll make the exception for.
Transmisogyny in the book. Major spoilers.
It's utterly jarring and took me out of the plot because, to me, it's not a big deal. Oh a woman at a location where women go to, whatever. I get that the author is making the MC a purposefully unlikeable character but I think this goes a lil too far. At that point in the book, it's pretty well established the MC is a piece of shit.
Because we're discussing this I'll mention that I'm transmisogyny exempt trans nonbinary person. Just to be clear this is the pov that I am seeing this content from.
Major ableism, alcohol use, anti japanese racism, anti native racism, antiblack racism, body shaming, bullying, child abuse, classism, fatphobia, death, dogs, drowning, drug abuse, gore, hand trauma, misgendering, misogyny, paranoia, psychiatric institutions, racial fetishization, sibling rivalry, sinophobia, suicide, suicide baiting, transmisogyny, xenophobia
medium ableism towards addiction, divorce, drowning, fatphobia, fungus, gore, insects, kidnapping, marital infidelity, misogyny, paranoia, parasites, pedophilia, grooming, age gap
drug use , unsanitary
minor Charles manson mention, Islamophobia, anti Japanese j slur used once, cults, death threats, genocide, human trafficking, pedophilia, quentin tarantino, self harm, sexual abuse, sexual content, tasteless torture camp reference, teacher student relationship, torture, water boarding joke
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Transphobia, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Ableism, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Pedophilia
Minor: Genocide, Islamophobia, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, and Trafficking
ripxw's review
dark
emotional
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Transphobia, Cancer, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Mental illness, and Terminal illness