Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

3 reviews

wogslandwriter's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

To be honest, I found the book mostly boring. I only finished it because the audiobook was pretty short and I wanted to see how the real world storyline resolved. It wasn't too much of a mystery and the novel portion of the story was more of a supporting character to the narrative between Leo and Hannah than a full story on it's own.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and it's nuanced and less nuanced analyses of how a story is affected by the author and vice versa. Some parts were feather-light and I felt accomplished for seeing them and noticing the themes. Other parts were extremely heavy-handed and felt a little silly to read. 

I think having the "real world" elements be restricted entirely to correspondence was a really smart move and really pulled the book together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, Blood, Violence, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Gore, Classism, Medical content, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Deportation, Alcohol, Child death, Sexual violence, Mental illness, and Pedophilia

One of the main characters describes and incident from their past where a younger sibling dies in an accident. Another describes a childhood incident where a beating from a parent has pedophilic overtones, but there is an intervention before anything beyond physical violence occurs.

bluecardinal's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Infidelity, Rape, Domestic abuse, Murder, Pedophilia, Classism, Gun violence, and Racism

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

A murder mystery within a murder mystery, this is a solid thriller. The real killer was hiding in plain sight and was so painfully obvious that I didn’t even consider them as a candidate. The characters are mostly likeable and diverse. The plot is believable. The end was good but arrived to with little pomp or circumstance. There are some glaring spelling/grammar mistakes throughout that are a bit annoying but all in all a solid book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Blood, Domestic abuse, Gore, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Stalking, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Racism, and Toxic friendship