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smith2ds's review
4.75
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Grief, Car accident, Alcohol, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Murder, Torture, Abandonment, Infertility, Emotional abuse, Violence, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Bullying, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical trauma
doodlebeanz's review
- 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
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.
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.
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. :(
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Self harm, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, and Death of parent
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Bullying, Car accident, and Emotional abuse
maddie_can_read's review against another edition
- 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
- 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 :
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.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Animal death, Pregnancy, Suicide, Torture, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Confinement, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Bullying, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, and Grief
Minor: Homophobia, Excrement, Rape, Animal death, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
jennabailey's review
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Blood, Car accident, Death, Body shaming, Sexual assault, Murder, and Violence
killmoore_'s review
- 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? It's complicated
3.5
Fun read, but don't expect too much.
Graphic: Car accident, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Grief, Mental illness, Confinement, Infidelity, Misogyny, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, Cursing, Death of parent, Vomit, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders
Very in depth description of dofficult labor and complications from medical neglect.mharris4074's review
- 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
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Confinement, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Bullying, Murder, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Sexual assault and Misogyny
Minor: Miscarriage
sallytiffany's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Kidnapping and Violence
Moderate: Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Suicide attempt, Car accident, Child abuse, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Confinement, Blood, Domestic abuse, Grief, Child death, Suicide, and Kidnapping
ageorge9's review
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Child abuse and Violence
Minor: Domestic abuse
sierrabowers's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Violence, Abandonment, Gore, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
3readingcircus's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Kidnapping
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Rape, Abortion, Miscarriage, Vomit, and Death of parent