Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

The Last Word by Taylor Adams

25 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

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. 

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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

rachwilken's review

fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Vomit, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Mass/school shootings and Alcoholism

thesonnetsilence's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I typically don't read thrillers, but I was happy I picked this one up. I couldn't put it down! I feel H.G. Kane was a refreshing and unique antagonist, and he was unlike anything I expected going into this book. I also think the emphasis on grief was very powerful, and I shed quite a few tears toward the end. There were twists and turns, and although I  did predict a couple of the major plot points, how we got there was filled with twists and turns that I wasn't expecting! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Grief, Murder, Body horror, Stalking, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Alcoholism, Infertility, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Fatphobia and Mass/school shootings

cc_shelflove's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

We’ve all been there. A book that is soooooo fucking bad we can’t believe we actually finished it. We post our one-star rage reviews and we move along to the next, hopefully better, book. But what if the authors we hurt on the internet chose to seek revenge? This is what happens to Emma Carpenter. The Last Word’s pages are filled with darkness and horror. Unfortunately, like Adams’s Hairpin Bridge, this was a miss for me. I’m sorry, Taylor!!! Don’t come for me!! I have to be honest with my followers, and the fact is this—at times I was so bored of this book, I really didn’t care if the main character lived or died. I truly couldn’t wait to finish it so I could start another book. ☹️ I really loved the last chapter, though! I promise that I don’t think Taylor Adams is a bad author by any means, but based on his last two books I simply don’t think he is the author for me. Read for yourself and be the judge because as you know, our tastes can vary immensely from book to book. Reading is fun! 🤪

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Infertility, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Child death

Moderate: Mass/school shootings

edotte's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child death, Suicide, Murder, Death, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Grief, Blood, and Alcoholism

Minor: Body horror and Infertility

toofondofbooks_'s review

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Yoooo this was such an out of pocket thriller. Once I got into it I was properly hooked. Something is keeping me from giving it 5 stars but to say anything about it would be too spoiler-y. It was pretty solid though and came with the "holy shit" moments that I expect from Taylor Adams after reading No Exit years ago.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Medical content, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Gaslighting, Grief, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Blood, Body shaming, Death of parent, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Stalking

dilani's review

dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

Loved the premise and the way this book panned out. I thought I knew what was happening until that last 25% of that book. Twist after twist my head was spinning by the end of it all. Also glad to say that the dog, Laika, ends up perfectly okay in the end. I don't think I would've rated this book a 4 had Laika not survived TBH. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Infertility, Car accident, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Alcoholism

honey_coated_chapters'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

2.0

°:. *₊ ° . ° .•

𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: 2//5 

𝑵𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔: 327

𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒆: thriller/suspense 

𝑸𝒖𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔: 

•isolated setting

•determined MC

•multiple bad guys 

𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆: slasher films (think: scream and the strangers) and deep diving into Reddit threads about murder mysteries, incels and books. 

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First and most importantly — the dog doesn’t die. Now, this book was hard to rate because I actually did enjoy it, the plot is wildly different and over the top like a real slasher but, towards the middle it got so incredibly repetitive I had to put it down. Yes she’s running from the bad guy, yes there’s no way out, yes he’s outsmarted her again and thought of every conceivable way to keep her how does he keep doing that? My oh my. 

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It was good in that — I felt the tension and I was genuinely finding myself rooting for our main character to make it through. I also absolutely love slashers and this definitely gave me a nice suspenseful vibe. The killer was absolutely disgusting — the author did a tremendous job in making this guy gross and detestable. There’s a twist towards the end I saw coming, was briefly dispelled and then came to light, so that was wonderfully written. Aside from the repetitiveness, the ending made me really upset, but I’ll give it to the author that it was impeccably written… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Violence, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Infertility, and Suicide

mahollo26's review

adventurous challenging funny tense fast-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

2.0

This book was absurd, weird and by  the halfway mark…I didn’t care anymore. Well I only cared about Laila, the dog. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Child death