Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

31 reviews

tatjanasbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Addiction, Drug use, Death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Chronic illness, Murder, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Grief

Minor: Stalking, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, and Violence

amanda_reads13's review against another edition

tense fast-paced

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

4.0

When Chloe is 12, her father is arrested for the murder of 6 teenage girls in their small town. 20 years later, Chloe is engaged and working as a psychologist. Her life is thrown back into turmoil when local girls start to go missing again. 

Our narrator, Chloe, is super unreliable. She has PTSD, mental health and trust issues, and has a tendency to mix alcohol and prescription drugs. The entire time I was questioning everything she said and believed to be true. It was pretty clear pretty early on that her focus was going to be on Daniel, but everything seemed to be too convenient. 

Her trust issues mixed with this couples lack of communication makes me understand why her focus went straight to him. Men let her down, they always have let her down, why would Daniel be any different? Had they just been open, honest, and communicated with each other, they probably would have caught the killer much earlier. 

Daniel

is such a genuinely kind and sweet man. He loved Chloe so much, but was not completely honest with her. Yes, he did it for an understandable reason, but if you can't tell your fiance everything about yourself, who can you? It turns out that his sister who "disappeared" when she was 13, was actually alive and well. Their father was an abusive drunk and to save her from his abuse, Daniel arranged for her to "run-away" from home. He keeps this a secret from Chloe.

Cooper

was the obvious suspect from the start. He seemed a bit off from the beginning. We find out that it was actually him from the beginning. His father took the fall for him. In the present he manipulates a local man to impersonate a reporter in order to get close to Chloe. He manipulates and gaslights Chloe into believing her fiance is a killer by planting evidence and targeting girls close to her. He hates that Daniel is taking his sister's attention from him and wants him out of her life. Creepy. 

Overall, it is a gripping a twisty thriller with an unreliable narrator. You never really know where the story is leading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Addiction, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, Death, and Grief

coco78337's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Murder, Death, Drug abuse, Addiction, Blood, Child death, and Violence

Minor: Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Self harm, Bullying, Vomit, and Stalking

thismermaidreads's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

This book starts with an unnecessarily triggering description of a mentally unwell teenage girl. I was able to mentally push past that just to get 80% of the way through the book where the main character does something I CAN’T stand in books and find incredibly unethical. So I know for those reasons I can't rate it higher than a 3...it's getting a two because quite frankly there were just too many oh my God I can't trust these people in her life and like i get it, but also like couldn't she have at least ONE person in her life who could be trustworthy? Oh she did...but yeah they weren't actually so this poor girl (woman) left the book with literally no ONE. Had that plot twist 80% of the way through NOT happened and she at least got a HEA I THINK I could have gotten up to a 3.5 4 star.

I just can't with people who use their horrific experiences as a reason to cheat on an otherwise loyal partner.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Medical content, Murder, Drug use, Abandonment, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

e_faith_172912's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Death

Moderate: Kidnapping, Self harm, Alcohol, Infidelity, Murder, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Blood, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Drug use

Minor: Sexual content and Stalking

aprilblues348's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Stalking, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Gun violence, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child death, and Death of parent

xmeganlowe's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Such a good thriller!! The writing was sophisticated and you really got to know the thoughts of Chloe. I really thought I had it all figured out but was shocked by the final revelation of who the killer actually was. That being said, once the true killer was revealed, it did seem very anti-climatic in the way it wrapped up. But I do appreciate that all angles were tackled and resolved in the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Violence, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Abandonment and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Self harm

frekdal's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Blood, Grief, Drug abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Violence

secondhandbookshelves's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.75

I'm sort of on the fence about this one. 
I read the book in one sitting but ended up skimming the last half.
The way the book is written is repeative, drawn out, and purposefully sideways.
It's not always clear what the timeline is either because we fall into flash backs, flash sideways, and other POVs randomly & with no indication as to who we're hearing from.
I'm not super impressed with the book, but this was my first by this author so I'm unsure if this is just how she writes?
Might check out another from the library but not planning to  uy any others (or revisit this one)

Is ot a twist if the character that ends up being the bad guy is barely in the story? I didn't see it coming because it literally came out of left field. The murderer has maybe two interactions with the main character before things are revealed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Drug use, Violence, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Addiction

aas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Grief, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Kidnapping, Violence, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts