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therainbowshelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Violence, Lesbophobia, Blood, Hate crime, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Medical content, Physical abuse, and Suicide
Minor: Death of parent
lilly_anne's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, Suicide, and Death
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Grief, and Homophobia
Minor: Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, and Outing
mar's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Death of parent, Death, Homophobia, and Violence
Moderate: Chronic illness, Hate crime, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Suicide
Minor: Gun violence, Antisemitism, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, and Child abuse
jamesflint's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Suicide
shark67372's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia and Violence
Moderate: Suicide
evilyn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Suicide and Suicide attempt
prettycloud's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Murder and Homophobia
Minor: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Biphobia, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Violence, Gun violence, and Suicide
This is a noir book, so it fulfills the genre conventions of people getting beat up and shot at regularly (including getting murdered that way). Many of the characters are LGBT+, and they experience period-appropriate homophobic violence and threats to their livelihood. The narrator ends up in a hospital at one point, but no harm to her body or agency takes place there. The narrator's mentor has multiple sclerosis but works in spite of it.novi's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
4.5
My favorite part of the book is the ending. The very end. I really didn't see it coming and it was great. What I really love about this book is that beside a mystery book, it is also a book about women killing terrible men. I got the recommendation from A Sunny Book Nook's video, titled "favorite niche book tropes & subgenres" and this book is exactly as she described. I really love this quote that Ms. Pentecost said about severing the chain of painful events that a lot of women experiences so that no one need to suffer from them. I can't put the quote here because it'll spoil the story but I just love that message and I want to do that too for all the everyone in the world, especially women.
There's one thing that frustrates me about this book though. The writing style is often not straight-forward. There's always at least one idiom in every page. For example:
"I don't know what flickered in and out of her head while she was coming up with a response, but I would have given a sawbuck to catch the matinee." (I still don't know what it means. I won't google it.)
"Being a pale redhead, I'm a master blusher. But the doc gave me a run for my money." (I often heard about "run for my money" so fine, I'd googled it. I finally understood the whole this after searching through 4 (four) dictionary websites.)
"The police are going to start flinging open closets," I said. "If you have any skeletons, they're sure to come tumbling out." (This is not about real closets and skeletons. Did people really talk like this in those days?)
If it's not obvious already, english is not my first languange. I would say I've read quite a lot of english books but I have never found one that has as many idioms as this book. Is there a word for this style? Or was that just the old american style?
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Violence
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, and Suicide
Minor: Child abuse and Lesbophobia
bsteve24's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Death
Minor: Chronic illness, Homophobia, and Suicide
gracew's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Violence, Sexual violence, and Suicide
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Antisemitism