Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Last Word by Taylor Adams

7 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

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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

crbowman's review

challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

A challenging book for me.  I wasn't aware from the book jacket that animals would be involved.  I also agree with another review the book could have been less than 300 pages.  I felt the last 100 pages went slow and repetitive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Animal death, and Grief

Minor: Mental illness, Car accident, Gun violence, Infertility, and Injury/Injury detail

horizonous's review against another edition

The dog kind of talks.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Animal death

Minor: Alcoholism and Death of parent

◦ Mental illness = Depression

vj_thompson's review

dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

The writing. The plot twists. I loved every moment of the story. My heart was racing the whole time!! I can’t wait to read more of Taylor Adams’ books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Grief, Stalking, Mental illness, Vomit, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Infertility, Child death, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Death, Eating disorder, and Gun violence

Minor: Alcohol, Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, and Bullying

mybookstaygram's review

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Child death

outsmartyourshelf's review

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Emma is house-sitting at Strand Beach, Washington. It's an isolated place with mostly currently empty vacation homes, & there's only Emma & her dog, Laika, plus nearest neighbour, Deek, an old man who plays Hangman with Emma via telescope. Emma spends most of her days reading ebooks & when she reads a poorly written horror novel by H.G. Kane, she thinks nothing of firing off a 1-star review. When she receives a reply from the author asking her to remove the review, Emma is annoyed & refuses, & over a couple more exchanges this explodes into direct threats from the author.

Then odd occurrences start to happen including the feeling someone is inside the house watching her. Emma doesn't really take things seriously until the homeowner messages her saying that an intruder has been captured outside the house on the motion cameras. Is this a coincidence or has the author tracked her down?

I'm a bit mixed in my views about this. It is well-written, pacy, & there are lots of twists & turns (although I guessed the main twist, some of others I definitely did not see coming which is always a good thing). Did I actually enjoy reading it though? Not sure. I will reiterate in the TWs but let me tell you here that the dog survives. I saw this in some reviews before deciding to read it as I'm always cautious with thriller books with pets in, but that's not to say poor Laika doesn't go through some horror, but ultimately she's okay. Me - not so much as I could have happily gone on avoiding knowing about the fate of real-life namesake Laika who was sent into space, for the rest of my natural life. I have deliberately avoided ever Googling anything about this so, yeah, thanks for that I guess. Verdict: well-written, fast-paced with lots of twists & turns but the couple of animal-related bits were difficult to read for me. 

TWs: violence, death, stalking, animal cruelty (fortunately the dog survives), animal death (you read about the real-life Laika who didn't).

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Hodder & Stoughton, for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

aileron's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Murder, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Animal death and Infertility

Minor: Alcoholism and Mass/school shootings