Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz

13 reviews

tjsayler's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

cassie7e's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book bombards you with context and explanations, so every new one feels immediately suspicious and you never know who to trust. 

Kelly is excruciatingly self doubting and insecure. Combined with the narrator's voice for her in emotional scenes, I found her annoying. However I did relate to her moments of frustration at being consistently left out of the loop or her desire for plans and predictability being treated with disdain. And she does grow, which of course we get to see in her thoughts in elaborate detail, which slows down tense moments so much it's shocking the other characters don't comment on her long pauses before reacting! 

In addition to some moments being drawn out, others are glossed over and omitted, only told to us later. Kelly's thoughts refer to past moments of relationship building that we didn't get to see, which makes them feel fake and trying too hard prove the closeness is developing. Would have been more effective for me if those fond moments were on page, not mental reflections.

I'm still not sure how I feel about stories being set during the height of the pandemic - they either feel like inauthentic shallow set dressing or way to heavy for me to think about. This one leans toward shallow and mainly serves to further isolate the characters. Also for how often Virgo appears and does very catlike things, no mention is ever made of feeding her, even though other mundane daily things (like feeding the humans) comes up a lot! Minor observation, I know.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lavloveslit's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional mysterious tense slow-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

2.5

This was a spontaneous pick on the Libby app, I read it on Kindle app on my phone. Just kinda went for it as I like to always be reading one e-book. I'll probably stick to my usual method of researching a book before starting it. This wasn't a wow-er by any means, but I still enjoyed it enough to finish it.

I don't think I've ever disliked a main character as much as Kelly - which made it an interesting and frustrating read. I did appreciate the poly and queer representation, albeit if it was a toxic and "what not to do" representation. This story wasn't what I was quite expecting, I usually love some romance elements but everything felt forced and unnatural. And I did not like a single character in this book. Not every great book needs likeable characters, but great books need at least complex characters and every character in this story fell fairly flat for me. Also was expecting it to have thriller elements throughout but really it's only slightly "tense" and the last maybe 20% could be considered a thriller. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

snoopyfanclub's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Kelly is dumber than a bag of rocks. Like good god. Truly have to suspend a LOT of disbelief over this plot.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

estimpert's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

vicktorea's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

2.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

megwilli's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

3.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

d0505's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

0.5

This book didn’t work for me at all. The main character is ridiculous and there was absolutely no chemistry within the relationship at all. They went from virtual strangers to suddenly the main character was willing to risk & lose everything for her partners that she was deeply in love with out of the blue. It’s like she had no sense of self worth. Furthermore, the entire plot was implausible. This story annoyed me. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

pookiee's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious 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? Yes

2.0

not a thriller; mostly throuple drama

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

nailartklaudia's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

2.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings