Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica

117 reviews

laurenashton's review

dark sad fast-paced

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

3.5

The twists this book had were amazing and I read the entire book in 3 hours. I tend to really like books that either go back and forth between two timelines, or ones with several narrators giving their part of the story, and this book was the perfect mix of both of those!
However, a lot of the plot information was sort of overlooked to discuss one of the main character’s jobs as a doula, which we could have done without in my opinion. Also, there was a strangely large amount of unnecessary female hysteria that sort of tainted the read. 
Overall it was a good read though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Grief

nataliebootlah's review against another edition

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? No

4.0

Shelby Tebow goes out for a late night run and doesn’t come back. Not long after, Meredith and her six-year-old daughter Delilah also go missing. The lack of answers sets the town on edge until both cases go cold. 

Fast forward eleven years: Delilah escapes her captors and the dark, dingy basement she’s been trapped in. Suddenly she’s back home with her dad and brother, but the reunion doesn’t bring the peace they were hoping for. Instead, Delilah’s return brings back questions about what really happened all those years ago. 

Told from the point of views of Delilah, Meredith, the brother Leo, and the neighbor Kate, the novel spans across eleven years ago and present day. Local Woman Missing is full of twists and turns that will have you naming a new suspect every few chapters and guessing until the very end. 

I enjoyed it until the last few chapters where I personally felt like some logistics were impossible to add up. Still a good read though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Infidelity

tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Infidelity, Self harm, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Suicide, Excrement, Vomit, and Stalking

sarajanereads's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Murder, and Pregnancy

ksheaffs's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I’ll happily put this one at a 3.5.  It has a lot of good things going for it and I found it to be overall enjoyable but not especially incredible.

 

Local Woman Missing starts off strong right from the beginning and is engaging throughout.  Even the title has an ominous air about it.  Kubica gets the ball rolling in the first few chapters with 3 missing persons and a hold-your-breath suspense sequence as a teenage girl attempts to escape from her captors that have been holding her for 11 years. The author uses the thriller-classic multiple timelines to her advantage, effectively keeping the reader in the dark for the majority of the novel.  The interwovenness of the several main characters builds up to a fun surprise ending, however many of the twists and turns are easy to see coming several pages in advance, lessening some of the thrill and while the author does her best to misdirect the reader, I really wasn’t fooled by any of the red herrings. 

 

Unfortunately, while this thriller aims to be rooted in reality more than some, it does require a level of suspension of disbelief. Kubica includes several small details necessary to the execution of the final twists and turns that rely a little too much on characters being incompetent and/or completely unaware and left me ultimately unsatisfied. The neatly wrapped bow of an ending was the final nail in the coffin as victims of such a crime really don’t just bounce back like that.

 

Final thoughts? If you are big into thrillers and looking for shock value at the expense of plausibility, I think this is a great choice.  The audiobook was especially easy to listen to and made for a quick read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder

klubbgodis's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Self harm, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Medical trauma

Minor: Miscarriage, Car accident, and Pregnancy

romam93's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Miscarriage, Suicide, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

thereadingshelf's review

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Bullying, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder

nodogsonthemoon's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Bullying, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

jenniferpalmblad's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Blood, and Medical trauma