Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Local Woman Missing

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica

75 reviews

chandlerkl's review

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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doodlebeanz's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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? No

2.5

I was SO excited for this book and I am SO sad that it was such a let down. I try to go into every thriller I read with optimism and hope that one will reach the level of The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, and every time I am let down. This book was no exception.

First off, I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style. Lots of dialogue followed up by internal dialogue which was then also followed up with 'I said this to her/him/them.' Like... just have the characters have external dialogue and a conversation instead of writing about what someone is thinking in their heads and also saying? I don't know, the writing style was weird. It was good writing, but just oddly set up.

Second, there were WAY TOO MANY CHARACTERS. Too many characters who shared too many similarities; living on the same street, having children, being slightly suspicious, being dead. There were so many times I had to be like 'wait, who?'. I even had to start writing in the journal entries here on Storygraph to keep up with the characters.

Third, I am usually a huge fan of books that deal with the past and the present, but similarly to the mass amounts of characters becoming confusing, the back and forth between present and future became confusing in the end.

Why were Leo's chapters like he was writing in a journal, or a letter written to Delilah?

There was too much skipping around and too many POVs where it just became jumbled in my mind.

Fourth, and the worst of them all, this book fell victim to my biggest thriller book irk... I read 340+ pages of tension and build up just for it to be wrapped up in 2 pages... approximately 5-6 paragraphs, maybe.

You find out that Bea is a sociopath apparently and Delilah had been living in her 'studio' in the backyard, 20 feet away from her family for 11 years, and Bea goes to jail and Shelby's daughter is living with her real father and Jason was let out of his wrongful imprisonment and the people who took Carly were copycat criminals and they stupidly went back to the house where they held Carly captive and were captured... all in 2 pages. Like why did I even read the entire story then?! Also, what the hell was the point of the entire OBGYN Dr. Fiengold? Just seemed like a little plot point to throw everyone off the scent of what really happened but by then the reader, at least I didn't, realize anything was amiss with Bea so... just unnecessary characters and mini suspenseful plot twists that turn into nothing.

The story had so many characters and twists and turns and so much suspense that it just couldn't keep up with it all. The first half the book was good, but it was also SLOW PACED... like glacially slow. Like painfully slow. It didn't hold my attention much past the half way point, if I'm being honest. So disappointing. :(

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maddie_can_read's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

What I liked:

Good voice acting in the audiobook and multiple actors
How tense and how face paced the book was
The dialogue between the characters
Book structure, jumping back and forth through time and all the different characters perspectives
The two story-lines and how they interwined
The author was really good at making the reader feel the fear the characters were
Casual LGBTQ inclusion

What I didn't like

The characters felt a bit underdeveloped. So some of the decisions they made didn't really seem to make sense
The logic of the book unfortunately starts to fall apart a bit for me about 3/4 of the way through the book. Like characters do things that don't really make sense/ we don't know them well enough to justify the odd decisions they make

But you know what, I enjoyed most of the ride. This would have been an easy five stars for me if just a bit more attention was paid to logic/ character development so their decisions felt logical within the context of the story. I am someone who gets caught up in details of things and really gets annoyed by things not making sense in the context so what bothered me might not bother you, or maybe it will bother you even more haha.

Spoilers :

74% - Why would their respective partners leave two drunk ladies at the bar with no plan for them to get home? Also just weird for couples in their thirties to leave their partner behind at a bar, even if they're with a friend, this seems like a very immature thing to do, especially when they didn't plan how the two were going to get home.

Why are these grown ass women drunk driving? Again seems like an extremely juvenile/ immature thing to do. These ladies are presented as middle class/ upper class people who are not dumb. So they have the money for a cab and the common sense to take one. Do cabs/ Ubers not exist in this universe? I really think they would've called their partners or an Uber/ cab.

76% - The hit and hide the body. Why was the runner even in the middle of the road? Why didn't they see her? Earlier we were told that the runner was wearing running clothes. This is where the lack of character development makes things seem illogical. I just feel like we haven't seen anything from Meredith up until this point to indicate that she is such a pushover that she could literally get peer-presured into covering up a murder? I know it says she's in shock, I know she's drunk. But she literally knows who they hit. It says they're near a neig borhood. Girl if leaving the victim is unfathomable, wtf is hiding the body. RUN TO THE HOUSES???? I also feel like we didn't get to know Bea well enough to understand why she would rather risk covering up a murder than just phoning the police and risking a drunk driving manslaughter charge??? I feel like we also didn't see enough of Bea and Meridith's friendship to understand why Meredith would go along with her plan.

91% - Makes absolutely ZERO sense why Meredith would TELL BEA THAT SHE'S GOING TO TURN HER IN AND CONFRONT HER ONE ON ONE!!! the earlier illogical stuff could be forgiven but this makes no sense. Meridith at this point, literally knows Bea is capable of, if not murder, at least hiding a body, and framing an innocent person. Once again, maybe if we knew the characters a bit better/ knew their friendship a bit better this could have made a bit more sense. Especially why would Meredith would confront Bea if her child was at home. Like girl LIE to Bea! Phone the cops silly.

95% - Ok this part also makes zero sense. I really thought Bea was going to make Meredith take the knife and stab herself. Forensically this makes absolutely no sense. Self inflicted wounds look different than attack wounds!!!! She presses her palms against the wounds?? Like what. Like angles and shit man. This makes absolutely no sense. And don't hotels have videocameras ? Like what. Also she bonked her on the head with a Hammer LOL, like a self-inflicted hammer blow to the head lol
99% - copy-cat killer part is kinda weird? I feel saying this was just to justify why Carly looked so similar to Delilah. But it says they wanted attention and got none .. so why would they just keep Carly in the basement forever if they wanted attention. Also the Bea and the Garage part. Like I feel like Bea could've just said no to the police search. This part felt a bit forced. Feel like a bit of a tweak would've made it more realistic. Like Kate checking it out after being weirded out as to why Bea wouldn't let the cops in.

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fireside_reads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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katelynndzindzio's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.75

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emimero's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I couldn't stop listening to this audiobook, not only the elements of the story were captivating but so was the voice reading it. I have a preference for the beginning of the story with Delilah's perspective and wish I could have had more of it throughout the story. Didn't necessarily like the final outcome but the story was good all along ! The TW were a little triggering at first but the story moves a different direction and takes a different perspective. Definitely recommend if you like these kind of mystery.

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crabbytaco's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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mharris4074's review

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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kiragreads's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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bones_jackson's review

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dark medium-paced

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

2.0

O plot twist é forçado e ruim, não tem aquela tensão construída para que haja uma revelação, ela só veio do nada, mudando completamente e desnecessariamente a personalidade de um personagem para que se encaixasse no plot twist. A história começa boa, mas o resto dela é muito forçada.

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