Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Last Word by Taylor Adams

197 reviews

racheldallaire's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I LOVED this one. I had previously read No Exit and loved that one, but this one might be tied with it. Such a cleverly crafted story and I especially appreciated the two points of view. I wasn't sure where it was going at first, but it was brilliant. The characters are well-developed and I rooted so hard for Emma and Space Dog.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Cursing

emviolet's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

2.5

as usual, highly predictable and gratuitously violent. and it’s incredibly ironic that the author is writing about a bad author because…let me provide a quote for reference:

“His mouth is a small and dirty-looking orifice, as puckered as an asshole.” 

and that’s NOT in one of the “amateur writer” sections 🙃

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death and Infertility

braxtond08's review

mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Gun violence, Grief, Addiction, Murder, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Stalking

Minor: Infertility

zosiablue's review

dark tense fast-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? No

3.75

 Parts of this were so clever and fascinating and I tore through it. The author played with tricky perspectives in a way that gave the whole thing a dreamy feel and it had a ton of heart.

It was odd at first - the plot revolves around a caricatured red-pilled neckbeard type who goes after a reader who gave his published book one star. 

But some of the complaints the fictional reader had were complaints I had about the real author's previous books, namely about writing women badly and exploitive violence. So at first, I was like 😬 WHOOPS IS THIS GUY GONNA COME KILL ME?! (The author's note assures us all he won't.) 

But because of this, it was difficult to tell if he was satirizing his own criticism or not seeing himself in it. 

REGARDLESS, it was imperfect but action-packed and tightly plotted with about five (well done) false endings and I had a great time. And oh yeah: the dog is OK!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Grief, Murder, Infertility, Stalking, Car accident, and Child death

tanvi45's review

dark mysterious tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Child death

Minor: Infertility and Mental illness

rafiniert's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Vomit, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Murder, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Infertility, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Child death and Sexism

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, and Mass/school shootings

alexisgarcia's review

mysterious tense fast-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

2.0

i am so disappointed by this… and before i explain why, the irony of writing a negative review on a book thats plot centers around an author  hunting down a reader for leaving a bad review, is not lost on me. 

i absolutely loved No Exit by this author so i thought this had to be good.  i think the premise is super interesting and different, but it fell short. while this was definitely tense and action-packed, it was almost too much. there was an absurd amount of twists and turns that weren’t executed well. it felt like the authors gun ran out of bullets so they just started throwing rocks. these twists were predictable while also feeling so unnecessary and overdone. also the ending??? what kind of hallmark/lifetime movie did this turn into at the end?

*slight spoiler**** 

also, if you’re an author and you’re writing a mystery or thriller and it is based around one of the main “villains” having a mental illness, just don’t???? this heavily perpetuates mental health stereotypes and stigmas, which simply aren’t true. this is so played out and just downright harmful and inaccurate. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Murder, Alcoholism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Grief, Miscarriage, Infertility, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexism, and Suicidal thoughts

_alyssabrown's review

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Child death, Cursing, Car accident, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Self harm, Violence, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Stalking, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

somebodys_fool's review

dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Gun violence, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Death

savvyrosereads's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Rating: 4/5 stars

Emma gets more than she expects when she leaves a one-star review of a book…only to begin being stalked by the author.

Thus concludes my mini Taylor Adams marathon! This was probably the one I was most excited to get to because the premise sounded so interesting, and it ended up being the scariest of the bunch—seriously, I’m not even sure why, but it freaked me out SO much I had to only read during the daytime.

That said, I did find most of the twists predictable and felt like, while this one was engaging, it moved along more slowly than the previous Adams books I read. I definitely wouldn’t say I disliked this one (seriously, I wouldn’t, and neither would you if you read what an angry author might do!) (kidding, I think) but it was not my favorite either.

Overall, though, I had a good time and I’m glad I read this. It’s a pretty solid thriller with some creative moments, and a great choice if you’re not ready to let go of spooky season just yet!

Recommended to anyone, but especially if you like: isolated settings; grief recovery mixed with thrillers; books about books

CW: Suicide; death/murder; child death; animal harm; gore/blood/violence/gun violence; infertility

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Gore, Stalking, Child death, Death, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Infertility, Murder, Suicide, and Suicide attempt