Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - No Exit

Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

No Exit by Taylor Adams

100 reviews

gaby_readsss's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes

3.0

I read The Last Word earlier this year and loved it, which made me excited to read more of Taylor Adams’ books.
No Exit, however was a bit of a letdown for me.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It was very action-packed and I was on edge for the most part, which is a good thing when you’re reading a thriller. However, one thing I really struggled with was the writing. I found some parts to be very problematic. Were the racist slurs and misogynistic jokes really necessary? I get these “jokes” come from one of the villains in this book and we are meant to hate this character, but it made me uncomfortable and it also made question the author to be honest, which is kind of sad because I thought he was a new favorite thriller author when I read The Last Word.

So yeah, this wasn’t a terrible thriller. It had all the expected elements: a girl making irrational decisions, an isolated location, no phone signal, and people being killed by a psychopath. But I was expecting more.

I’m not sure I’ll read more books by this author in the future.

I still don’t know how these people, Sandi, Ashley, and Lars knew each other? Unless I missed it I don’t think it ever gets explained. It was kind of hard to believe all of it and it became a little too much toward the end.

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wyabook234's review

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

buer's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-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? Yes

Young college student, Darby Thorne, finds herself trapped at a rest stop on her way to say goodbye to her dying mother. After a strange series of events, Darby realizes that there is a kidnapped child in the back of one of the vehicles in the parking lot. She must figure out which of the four strangers at the rest stop is the killer and what she needs to do to save the kidnapped girl.

I want to like this book - it’s fast-paced, easy to read, and has an overarching theme of a young woman realizing that she is a better, stronger, and more resilient person than she could have ever imagined. Taylor Adams has a simple, visceral writing style that I like and introduces several interesting twists.

However. Much like one of the characters in this book, Adams feels like the kind of person who knows how to convincingly wear a mask. The mask he has chosen is that he’s the kind of person who believes that women are strong and capable, but considering that he sexualizes every female character in his book with varying degrees of brutality, I’m not convinced.

I also find it difficult to enjoy a book in which the author goes out of his way to introduce prejudice into the story. Taylor names an imaginary geographical landmark with a slur. He has a character tell multiple misogynistic jokes and a racist one that involves yet another slur. He uses the r-word and repeatedly references a probably homophobic piece of graffiti that he invented for the bathroom wall at the rest stop.

Maybe I’m wrong about Taylor, but I can’t recommend this book in good conscience. There are too many moments that got under my skin for reasons that weren’t serving the plot or adding depth to characters.

There are plenty other books that accomplish what this book does without also reeking of ick. Read those instead.

Content Warnings

hippie_raccoon's review against another edition

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dark 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

2.75

A fast read.

Ashley was almost cartoonish in how terrible he was. He casually murdered a kitten, kidnapped a little girl for sex work, mutilates others, slowly kills people....
It's almost too much.

I don't know if the author has ever interacted with a 9 year old, but Jay is not a convincing child.
For that matter, Darby isn't really a convincing young-20s woman. She's kind of flat. There's a subplot about getting home to see her mom in an emergency with some self guilt thrown in.

I did enjoy the overall action of the book. The violence was over the top, but I can appreciate the fact that people actually get hurt. Although Darby's plot armor is thiiiick. So is Ashley's for a lot of it, I guess.

Content Warnings