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amanda_reads89's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Suicide, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Dementia, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Cancer, and Miscarriage
brookey8888's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Infidelity, Physical abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Grief, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
greatexpectations77's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Death, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, and Abandonment
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Car accident, Dementia, Murder, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Sexual content, Blood, Self harm, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Miscarriage, and Terminal illness
bringmybooks's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
✨ 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 ✨ B̷O̷R̷R̷O̷W̷ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷
I've now read 2 of Megan Miranda's books (& currently have pretty much her entire backlist either on hold or loan through Libby) and I can tell you now these are books that I'm going to want on my shelves for anyone that says, "Hey, do you have a twisty thriller book that I could borrow? Something I won't be able to put down? Nothing too dark or messed up but, you know, something with grit?" So naturally, as aforementioned, I am *stoked* that they are all going to look so beautiful together!
Now on to this particular book - as I've only read two, I'm not sure if this is a tactic that Miranda employs in all of her works, but I love the way she plays with time and the narrative in this and The Only Survivors. All The Missing Girls hooks you with the prologue, drops you right into the beginning, then jumps two weeks into the future after a local girl goes missing and takes you back, day by day, to the fateful day when everything blows apart. Sometimes I had to remember what I already knew (and what the characters didn't) to try and keep all the threads straight, but I loved how it came together at the end!
I liked the characters in this one a lot, even as you only kind of get surface level with any of them (seems to be the way of it with thrillers, sometimes?) and I love the way Miranda explored relationships, especially those between teenage girls. I saw the undercurrents of relationships like those portrayed here in my own adolescence, and can only say I'm grateful I wasn't too near their orbit. Oof.
(Speaking of which, if you are looking for something like this but that touches way deeper on those bonds we forge as young adults and how those relationships can ripple out in ways we couldn't possibly see coming, check out Tana French's The Secret Place - it's the fifth in the Dublin Murder Squad series but can *technically* be read as a standalone, ALTHOUGH I highly recommend the entire series. Kind of a psychological thriller mystery? Anywho. Love it.)
Moderate: Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Violence, Gun violence, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Infidelity, Grief, and Physical abuse
Minor: Vomit, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Bullying, and Suicide
jamiejanae_6's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Death, Blood, Suicide, Stalking, Murder, Grief, Infidelity, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Dementia, and Child abuse
scoutvibes's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Bullying, Dementia, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Pregnancy, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Murder, Death, Grief, Suicide, Bullying, Alcoholism, Cancer, Violence, Dementia, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship
gabrielab's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I have so many mixed feelings about this book.
Right at the beginning, I was tempted to just stop reading it after the first few pages because of the writing style alone. The first chapter had so many short, weird sentences, a bunch of them starting with I; it really reminded me of the stories that kids usually write, the ones with "I went outside. I played in the garden. After, I called my mom.". It ruined the flow for me completely. Fortunately, the writing changed from part two on, otherwise I would've definitely given up on the book.
I was also not the biggest fan of how the book is structured and how the timeline is reversed. I can appreciate how challenging it must have been to write the story starting with day 15 and to try to balance the suspense, how much information the readers are given while maintaining a proper sequence of the events and a logical timeline. But I did find myself coming back again and again and rereading some of the previous chapters to make sense of the new information given and to try to understand how it's related to the parts we already know. Even now after I've finished the book, I feel the urge to just read it again in reverse and see if everything makes sense all together.
With regards to the characters, there's maybe just one I wanted to root for, the rest are pretty much all very unlikeable and flawed and so are the relationships between them. Looking through the notes I added while reading this, I've probably marked a dozen paragraphs detailing the interactions between the characters as 'Toxic!'. If there's any character development in this story, I didn't see it.
And maybe because of the fact that everyone was unlikeable and wrong, I finished this book without feeling anything in particular. I didn't feel happy, hopeful, sad, angry, though I felt like I should have felt all of those things. I didn't feel the relief of having everything tied together and explained, as per usual when a mystery is solved.
Now, with all the things I disliked out of the way, I must admit this book was a page turner and while I didn't feel any suspense or anxiety, it made me curious to see the story unfold. I thought the plot twists were good, I saw a few of them coming, but most were unexpected and I liked that. This is where my rating is mainly coming from; despite disliking the structure and the characters and being indifferent towards the conclusion, I managed to enjoy myself while reading the book.
Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, Dementia, Miscarriage, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Alcoholism