Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

The Last Word by Taylor Adams

3 reviews

chasingpages1's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Violence, Animal death, Death, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Car accident, Child death, Murder, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Vomit

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Mass/school shootings, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Drug use, Gaslighting, Medical content, Addiction, Excrement, and Eating disorder

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

4.5

 Finished reading: August 7th 2023

"Coincidences are fine in real life. But in fiction, they're bad writing."

I’ve been meaning to try his books for years now, and of course there was no way that I was going to resist the blurb of The Last Word for long. I love books with bookish angles, and what is more fascinating AND terrifying than a thriller read where an author slash killer goes after a person leaving him a one star review? And while things can be said about the plot being over the top and you definitely have to suspend your belief, I personally didn’t care because I was too busy enjoying the ride. This was exactly the dark, twisted and exhilarating read I needed! There is just something about the writing style that makes it very easy to fly through the pages, and the plot itself only increases that pace. The POVs are somehow blurred in points, and at times it takes a second before you realize who is in the spotlight; this would usually highly annoy me, but somehow in The Last Word it only added to the suspense. There are plenty of twists along the way as well, and with (at times) two contrasting POVs telling how the events happened it makes you wonder what is the real version. Again, this is usually something that would bother me, but in this case it somehow worked. Even the characters: none of them are exactly likeable, but since the main focus is on the plot and the life or death situation it's not as important. The Last Word definitely tips its toe in the horror genre though, and warnings are in place for particularly gruesome and graphic scenes as well as animal cruelty. If you think you can stomach those and like your thrillers on the dark and twisted side, I can highly recommend this story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Misogyny, Stalking, Death of parent, Gun violence, Infertility, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Bullying, Body horror, Self harm, Suicide, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts

whenimreading's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

2.0

As I was scrolling past all the 1 star reviews, I thought to myself I only have 2 stars to give… I really enjoyed the opening, it was a page turner until the middle completely fizzling out and draaaged, then the author dragged the ending even more. 

Emma is house sitting a remote beach house with its own creaky secrets but after writing a 1 star review and an odd exchange with the author, she’s paranoid of being watched. Isolating herself from events of the past year, throughout the book, a mystery unfolds slowly of what happened. While she’s being chased around the house by a killer. 

The book read a bit like a movie script, at one point I described it as a low budget scary movie, it has the final girl trope, twisty but ultimately predictable. The telescope Hangman 🔭 and flashbacks to Emma’s history would play nicely on the screen. Some of the themes were quite sad and downright disturbing - yes, the dog Laika survives but it was really really really unnecessary to include all those almost killed parts. The author does mention the brutal story of the original Laika, which if you don’t already know about, I’m sorry. On top of few other triggers, which may be spoilery, so please check at your own risk. 

Soooo the two ⭐️⭐️ stars are for the first part of the book 🤌🏼  and the one passage I really liked 🪐✨

“I don’t believe in God. But sometimes when I look out at the universe, I want to. There’s so much wonder out there. Planets made entirely of diamonds or ice, worlds where it rains molten glass whipped into knives by hurricane-force winds. Deep, dark places where the laws of physics as we understand them simply cease to be. Swirls of red and violet nebulae hundreds of light-years across. A human lifetime, traveling at the speed of light, couldn’t even cross a tiny fraction. She smiled. I guess I’m in love with the beauty and terror of it.” 💛

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, and Child death