Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

24 reviews

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

Finished reading: July 20th 2024

“The secrets on this island have teeth, and they don't like being dragged into the light.”

It kind of has become a tradition to buddy read Stuart Turton's books with Nicki, so of course we ended up doing the same with his newest title The Last Murder At The End Of The World. One of the things I love about his writing is just how completely different and unique each of his books is, and you never know what genre or story you are going to get. It's true that I don't exactly read a lot of dystopian stories, but I'm game for just about anything as long as Stuart Turton writes it. And I have to say that it turned out to be yet another very successful buddy read! The Last Murder At The End Of The World uses a multiple POV structure and there are a LOT of different characters to keep apart. A list of names is provided in the beginning, which definitely helped... But it still slowed down the pace a little in the beginning, especially since most are not the easiest names to remember. The dystopian world itself is intriguing, and I loved how you only slowly started to learn more about what was REALLY going on. This isn't just a murder mystery or a race against the clock, as it also shows you both sides of humanity and gives you plenty of puzzles to tackle along the way. The story started out slower than expected and this is not my favorite Stuart Turton, but especially the second half was brilliant. It was fun going back and forth with Nicki talking about and processing yet another shocking reveal... And of course there was also the obligatory baking involved. I'm keeping this review short as it's hard to properly talk about the plot without spoiling certain things... The Last Murder At The End Of The World is one of those books where it's best to go in blind. I can say that I never did guess the full truth about it all though! It's without doubt a very satisfying read, and I will already be looking forward to his next book (supposedly a more contemporary thriller; can't wait!). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

lovelyandmorbid's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Suicide, and Death of parent

beepbeep101's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Mental illness, Torture, Vomit, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic

victoriastarkid's review

adventurous mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

Overall an interesting read. Sometimes there feels like too much going on that doesn’t necessarily all tie together at the end, but the story was really interesting. The characters weren’t super lovable, but the villain was really well written. Not as good as The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle in my opinion, but still a good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Murder

Moderate: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Physical abuse, Suicide, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

klabelle33's review

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Violence, and Murder

aileron's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide, Blood, and Cannibalism

jazhandz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

I enjoyed Evelyn Hardcastle a lot, and D&DW a fair amount, so I was really excited to dig into this. It was very twisty and complicated in the way Turton’s books always are, but I loved the process of entangling what the high concept was this time, and I blazed through reading it. A fascinating mystery and if you’ll excuse me I need to go reread Evelyn Hardcastle to chase this emotional high again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Medical content and Stalking

Fantastical racism

katie_elise's review

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Murder

philosopher_kj's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, and Xenophobia

oceanwriter's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

Given the title, I don’t know why I was surprised by the fact that this book is just as much a dystopian novel as it is a mystery. I don’t know if my opinion of the story would have been different had I gone into it knowingly, but it definitely did take me by surprise. 

 

I struggle to give a synopsis of this because I found it tricky to follow on audiobook. The delivery may be better suited for paper. The gist of the story is that a small island community is cut off from other parts of the world due to a dense fog that surrounds them. They live in relative peace, that is until one of their important scientists is found murdered, jeopardizing their security system. 

 

A common problem I find in several of the dystopian books I’ve read is that the universes are presented as though the reader already knows every intricacy. I felt lost from start to finish, feeling only slightly enlightened as the book went on. Again, this might have been less of a problem if I’d been reading it with my eyes. Even still, it felt like as a whole there were a number of gaps in regards to both plot and character. By the end, I felt nothing had resonated. 

 

Trouble following aside, I enjoyed the narrator, James Cameron Stewart’s performance on the audiobook. 

 

Thanks to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for providing me with a free audio ARC of the book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury