Reviews tagging 'Death'

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

5 reviews

anabellam06's review

dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, and Stalking

Moderate: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcoholism

joshoonet's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

• Sort of a diary format, but not really? Makes you empathise with the protagonist, since the reader is in the same position as her
• Very interesting concept for sure! And pretty well done from a layman's perspective
• Mostly slow burn except for the last ~30 pages, maybe a smoother transition would have been cool
• Didn't even CONSIDER the ending until pretty late

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Dementia, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Blood, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Death, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

hellokatya's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

2.75

i really wanted to like this book more than i did, but it was such a chore to get through.
the writing is immaculate; watson’s ability to put emotions into words is truly incredible, but it just took a lot to push through the entirety.

from the very moment it was revealed she was attacked, not hit by a car, i knew immediately that’s who she was staying with, and that the man with the scar was her actual husband. granted - i dont always think it’s a bad thing to have a well crafted story with good hints, it just felt very obvious.

it was extremely difficult to get past the constant descriptions of her waking up confused - could’ve been spared more times.
overall, if you’re interested in a slower burn and wanting to have a lighter read, this book would be perfect; i however won’t be recommending this to anyone

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Grief, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Infidelity, Physical abuse, Vomit, Death, Rape, Body horror, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Car accident

zara89's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Violence, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Rape

Minor: Car accident, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

novi's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I read this in one sitting. It's so fast paced and I kept wanting to know what actually happened because right from the first page until the end, the suspense is always there. As we read more, we know that we can't trust any character in this book, not even the narrator (it uses first person pov from the main character). This book scared me a lot of the times and I didn't see the twist coming, even though it's not something very extra ordinary. But it's still good. I was scared that the ending of this book will haunt me, but thank god it didn't lol so this is not that disturbing. Even though if it did, it means it's really really good. But I still like it nevertheless.

Half of this book, we're reading the main character's journal, but it's not written in journal style, more in the novel style. Which is a bit weird since she has to write it in secret and she basically didn't have a lot of time to barely write before she sleeps and forget everything all over again, yet she wrote in novel style. I am used to writing journal entries for hours and I don't think I can do that lol. I understand why the author decides to do this, though, because if we readers read a journal version of it, we wouldn't grasp the entire situation

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Stalking, Rape, and Infidelity

Minor: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Pregnancy