Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

224 reviews

cdkm9's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

A good suspenseful novel that kept me guessing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Murder, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Miscarriage

Minor: Vomit

cladcadaver's review against another edition

mysterious relaxing 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? No

2.0

Ambien-feuled thriller

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Content Warnings

Minor: Stalking, Child death, and Drug abuse

clarklyn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.75

I happened to read All the Dangerous Things before A Flicker in the Dark and, after finishing this one, I actually prefer her second novel over her debut. 

The MC, Chloe, drove me nuts. The continuous dumb mistakes, self pity, stupid decisions, and the habit of letting men walk all over her. It was hard to be on her side because she frustrated me so much.

Also…WHY the random hookup with Aaron/Tyler? It felt so out of left field and unnecessary

The overuse of similes and metaphors/ general overwriting combined with a few little plot holes that bothered me makes it lose some points for me. 

I will say, though, I still enjoyed the journey to the plot twist (even though I ended up kind of guessing what was going on.) Anytime a book makes me feel vivid emotions, frustration, anticipation, anger, etc, I know it has completely sucked me in- and Flicker In the Dark did that!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Addiction, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Murder, Suicide attempt, Death, Kidnapping, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Blood, Stalking, Gun violence, Infidelity, Child abuse, Child death, Bullying, and Adult/minor relationship

mollycook22's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Murder, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Alcohol and Alcoholism

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

jjyork'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

4.25

Lots of twists and red herrings, but I wanted the main character to be more active in solving the mystery and experience more growth by the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Infidelity, Murder, Child death, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Miscarriage

efulton's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Suicide, and Drug abuse

Minor: Alcohol

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

This was enjoyable! I was correct with who I thought did it and felt like it was so obvious. This book just felt so similar and like I’ve read it before. I can’t think of the book, but I read another book with the same plot basically. 
I did not see one thing coming, but I feel like that wasn’t the biggest reveal. This kept me entertained, but it was nothing amazing. The main character was kind of annoying and made stupid decisions. I also didn’t love the ending. 

I think if you’re new to thrillers this one is good, but if you’re read a few or a lot this would be nothing special. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Stalking, Violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Death, Grief, Infidelity, and Murder

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

jlazear's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Felt the twist was pretty predictable but over all a pretty good read 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Violence, Physical abuse, Drug use, and Drug abuse