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opplecopter's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Blood, Medical content, Death, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Suicide
Moderate: Infidelity and Bullying
Minor: Cursing, Body shaming, and Alcohol
jennabailey's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Blood, Car accident, Death, Body shaming, Sexual assault, Murder, and Violence
crosberg's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I wanted to like this book so much, and honestly it was a big let down. I struggle with first person narration at the best of times, but switching between three characters in two timelines, all in first person, left me with a sour taste in my mouth. The real sin of this book is setting up a lot of possible villains for the two core crimes and then delivering not one but FOUR "shocking twists". Even worse, the main twist had absolutely zero set up, which made it feel like a cheap "gotcha", on top of villainizing one of the only people in the book that comes from a marginalized community. I really love thrillers and mysteries, but part of what makes them great is trying to figure out the puzzle that the writer has set up along the way. Kubica does a very good job of building tension and making it hard to trust anyone in the book, but she does offer a couple of protagonists that feel safe and behave in totally reasonable ways in the face of utterly unreasonable trauma and violence. But making Bea, the tall, tough, punk lesbian the ultimate villain feels like Kubica cut out the middle of the puzzle she spent the rest of the book building and just glued a completely different puzzle into it. It felt forced, rushed, and ultimately insulting not just for how much of a hack job it was but also for making this particular character a bad guy, given the demographics of their very white, cis, het suburban existence.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault
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