Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Woman in the Library

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

58 reviews

thewintersings's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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micasreads's review against another edition

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4.0

An Australian author named Hannah shares chapters of her upcoming book with a fan named Leo who lives in the United States, who offers his opinion of the story and advises how to make the book more relatable to American readers. Set during the pandemic and amid travel restrictions, Leo helps the author by visiting various sites in Boston where her story takes place.'

The chapters she shares with Leo surround 4 strangers who meet at the Boston Public Library. As they are busy doing their own work, there rings a woman's blood-curdling scream. It is later discovered that a young woman had been found dead in a banquet room in the library. Slowly the four strangers realize that not all of them were there by chance and that one of them is the murderer.

Katherine Littrell was a natural choice as narrator. She did a wonderful job separating the different strong accents, of which there were approximately three, as well as the male and female characters. It was always easy to interpret which character she was portraying.

This was a good, solid mystery for me. There were a few moments that shocked me and that I felt truly added to the theme of the story. I was enjoying the slow burn of this audio and loved getting lost in the story, the mystery, and the characters.

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thebakerbookworm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a fun little mystery and a decent audiobook. It's a book-within-a-book story, and story A kept me guessing and intrigued while story B was honestly cracking me up.

Story A is the main one, the one from the book summary, and I was expecting more of a locked-room mystery, but the library part is only at the beginning and then they quickly move on. There are a lot of red flags that distracted me from the obvious culprit, so I stayed on my toes the whole time, never really sure who the big bad was. I liked the characters, though the plot is definitely the main focus.

But what really set this book apart was story B, where we discover that story A is actually a book being written, and the author is corresponding with a beta reader about her work. Through these letters, we learn about the Australian author and the beta reader, who lives in Boston where story A takes place. These letters were mostly at the end of each chapter, with the beta reader giving commentary on the previous chapter. Like I said, they just cracked me up and the twists and turns that story B takes really made this murder mystery unique.

Give this one a listen if you like libraries or a story-within-a-story plot or books about writers or a classic whodunnit mystery.

Thanks to Libro.fm, Dreamscape Media, and the author for my ALC!

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cozylifewithabby's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This book is a mystery/thriller with two stories being interwoven.

Story 1: There is a mystery writer and a beta reader. The beta reader seems to have his own idea of how one should write a murder mystery and gets overly attached.

Story 2: (The story the Beta Reader is reading) A writer meets two other writers and a psychology student when they all hear a woman scream at the Boston Public Library. They bond over this experience and become friends, but do they really know anything about each other.

Personally, I would have preferred not having the beta reader story. I think that it caused both stories to feel underdeveloped. I think the woman murdered in the library story with it's twists would have been interesting enough on its own and the beta reader story seems like an updated Misery and would have made a good short story.

The writing was strong though, the author kept me guessing, and I will definitely be reading more by Sulari Gentill.

Also, the narrator of the audiobook did a fantastic job.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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leandrathetbrzero's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

↓ Other Mystery/Thriller Hybrids ↓

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan
The Playground by Jane Shemilt
The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Thank you so much to Poisoned Pen Press and #Netgalley for gifting me an ARC of The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill in exchange for this honest review!

Freddie Kincaid visits the Boston Public Library in the hopes of making good progress on her current mystery manuscript. She finds inspiration in the table’s three other inhabitants, nicknaming them Freud Girl, Heroic Chin, and Handsome Man. As she creates their personalities and backstories in her head, a woman’s scream breaks the library’s silence. This mysterious scream acts as a bonding experience, and the four strangers forge an unexpected friendship. They become almost inseparable when a body is found.

The novel’s first few chapters had me on the edge of my seat. I found myself immediately invested in Gentill’s first-person protagonist, Freddie. Her thoughts and dialogue were authentic and very believable, although she did read older than 27 years old (imo). On that note, I also found characters like Marigold and Whit to act younger than they are meant to be. I was 100% on board for the brilliant chemistry between Freddie and Cain (aka Handsome Man). As thrilling as the narrative, was with each new clue and the ever-rising tensions between the four main characters, there are a few aspects to this novel that made it a less than satisfying read for me.

At the end of each chapter, the reader experiences an extra layer of metafiction with a letter from Leo (beta reader/pen pal) to Hannah (the “author” of Freddie’s storyline). The reader learns quickly that Leo is responding to Hannah’s most recent additions to an ongoing manuscript. To recap: Gentill is writing about Hannah as she writes about Freddie. While the correspondence intrigued me at first, it soon grew tiresome. The red flags and creepy intimacy of Leo did give me goosebumps, but then I just found myself annoyed by Leo. For instance his insistence on including COVID into the novel, and his obviously wrong assumptions about the culprit(s) and the characters’ relationships had me yelling at him aloud in frustration. The psycho pen pal is a fun idea, for sure, but I felt it was forced into this novel, and I would have preferred to simply read The Woman in the Library without the epistolary commentary.

I was most disappointed with the ending. I correctly identified the person(s) responsible for the crimes committed, but the actual motive was surprisingly less complicated and sinister than I imagined it would be. In fact, this is a rare moment in which I believe my imagination came up with a better motive to match the narrative’s tone. My only additional critique focuses on Gentill’s tendency to rush things. The relationship between Freddie and Cain is measured in weeks, yet they have fallen in love with each other already. Furthermore, the story ends a bit abruptly, and at a strange moment. I assume the final scene shines a light on Gentill’s dark humor which I would not have minded, but I wish it was grounded in more substantial past clues/scenes that support such an ending.

I do not regret reading this novel in the least. The blend of thriller and mystery ingredients kept me on edge for most of the novel. I enjoyed the “frame-up job” angle, as it added to the tension and feelings of distrust among the characters. I believe this book could be a good match for those who enjoy metafiction, multiple storylines, and mysteries that are thriller-leaning.

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starklinqs's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

4.75

Thanks to NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I’m not going to spoil this book’s format, as it’s not in the description, but it’s truly a unique one that I haven’t read in a thriller before, and it immediately drew me into the story. I found myself caring immensely about both stories (and if anything, that’s why this gets 4.75 and not a perfect 5/5, because I was so invested in BOTH and wanted to know more about one of the stories than what we got). I’ve never read this author before but I definitely want to check out more of her stuff from now on - this book had me so invested, and I was dying trying to figure out what was going to happen. I honestly should have slept a while ago but I couldn’t, because I just had to keep reading to find out what happened next.

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amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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the_rainydayreader's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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