Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

21 reviews

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

serenaann's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Grief, and Self harm

Minor: Gun violence, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Child death, Blood, Mental illness, Murder, and Toxic relationship

abireadthat's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective 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

4.25

Wowwwww. Just wow. Honestly so very impressed with A Flicker in The Dark. Willingham truly had me in a complete chokehold with this story.

With being a big thriller and mystery reader anyway, I was fully convinced I had figured out the twist and the way this story had gone but my goodness was I wrong. Stacy needs applauding because I was totally blindsided by what happens.

We meet Chloe Davis, a psychologist who like her patients, suffers from mental health issues. Her father was jailed a twenty something years ago for the murders of some young girls in their home town. All paths lead to him and the man was put behind bars, leaving Chloe and her brother with some psychological trauma, including their poor mother.

Chloe goes down the psychology pathway to help children and teenagers who like her suffered.

I admired her bravery and resilience and noticing smaller things that the detectives had missed, or simply that she didn’t know.

Like with a lot of protagonists in thrillers and mysteries, Chloe decides to stick her nose in once one of her patients goes missing.

I loved how fast paced the story was, and how Stacy had been sneaky with some bits and pieces. It was almost like listening to an unreliable narrator, hence why I was fully convinced my theory was right.

It’s small town, it’s fast paced, it’s twisty and it’s creepy and it truly is the best page turner I’ve read so far this year. 

As a debut novel by Willingham, I am truly impressed with how this book unwound and how the story developed. 

I cannot wait to read more of her works!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Child death, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, and Drug use

Minor: Mental illness and Drug abuse

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

brittanylee0302's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-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

4.25

This book blew me away. The slow burn killed me & I was really ready for the ultimate disappointment at the end but it definitely held up. I feel like it took forever to get to anything that was really exciting though & more things could have been sprinkled throughout instead of holding it all for the last 30%. Another thing I really struggled with is the flashbacks or more so day dreams, I feel like they could have been better separated because I was so lost at some points that I had to be like what time period are we in & what exactly is going on? Just a space between paragraphs would have been a little helpful instead of just jumping right into things 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Death, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Rape, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Vomit, Sexual content, and Gun violence

llamallama527's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This book was a tad more predictable than I'd prefer, but! It was well written and very interesting. Given this was the author's first published book, I intend to give her next books a read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death, Murder, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Murder, Physical abuse, Abandonment, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

caseyf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death, Murder, Child death, and Violence

vj_thompson's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

What a wild ride. There are twists, deep deep betrayal, second guessing. The ending shocked me but at the same time there were signs.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Addiction, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Death, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Vomit, Miscarriage, and Self harm

cait_demorato's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Child death, Gaslighting, Drug use, Murder, Miscarriage, Grief, Death, and Domestic abuse

myreadingdream13's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.0

The main girl makes frustrating decisions. The story veered dangerously close to some compelling ideas and thoughts but forgot all about them for the twist-riddled mess of an ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, Addiction, Child death, Suicide, Alcohol, Blood, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Eating disorder, Gun violence, Miscarriage, and Vomit