Reviews with content warning for Self harm - Invisible Girl

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Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

72 reviews

renee_reads_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Invisible Girl weaves together the stories of Saffyre Maddox, a teen girl with a troubled past; Owen Pick, a socially awkward loner; and the Fours family. Roan Fours is a psychologist who has treated Saffyre in the past. Son Josh meets her in the neighborhood. Wife Cate thought he was having an affair with Saffyre a year ago.

When Saffyre goes missing amidst a string of sexual attacks in the neighborhood, everyone looks at Owen Pick because he's the neighborhood creep. But Cate starts to think that it might be someone else. Someone much closer.

I liked the book and found it engaging, but it did seem at times that it was trying a little too hard to touch on different hot social topics. There was the gender disparity (The Fourses were okay with letting their son walk around by himself even though he'd been mugged, but they were worried about their daughter walking around alone). There was women's work (Cate stays at home to do freelance work and take care of the house even though she had a career that she loved, but barely does it anymore while Roan works). There's a tie-in to incels because the neighbor is lonely and finds that community (that one seemed a bit forced, in my opinion, and it was blown up in the synopsis a lot more than it actually ended up being). There's a missing girl. A potential affair. A potential sexual predator. Sometimes it seemed like it was just ticking off a check list, but not to the point where I found it offputting or felt like I didn't want to keep reading. The end didn't feel that smooth to me, but that could just be my tastes and preferences.

Overall, an engaging read if you're in the mood for a thriller.

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honestlyholly's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

Lisa Jewell writes excellent thrillers. The way she slowly reveals what's happening, giving clues you won't realise are clues until later, is very clever.
I loved the range of characters, all of which seem to have a dark side to them, which makes for interesting reading. The ending fell a little flat for me, but I appreciated the realism of it. I do wish we had seen more of what happened to the guy at the end (no spoilers). Does he get away with it?

My favourite part was Angelo the cat, because I am a crazy cat lady.

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