Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Such Charming Liars by Karen M. McManus

19 reviews

paronomaniac's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful 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

3.5

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stories's review against another edition

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tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A fast paced ride full of twists and turns as plot evolves and escalates. An unlikely trio of teens are left piecing together the facts while all the adults lie through their teeth. Plenty of incorrect theories abound.

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dramagirl2003's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

karen m. mcmanus’ first heist book was really good, but not my favourite. i wasn’t really keen on the lgbtq+ relationship, but other readers would love it.

originally i thought kat & liam would get together by the end of the book, and i wanted them to, but i also respect the decision to keep them as just step-siblings.

thoughts while reading

p89: 🤣😭💀
p94: well since jamie and kat look the same, it’s not the worst thing to be recognised
p123: so the trio on the cover must be kat, liam, and augustus, but who’s the 4th person?
p186: no wonder kat freaked out when liam put The Haunted Sandbox on in las vegas
p275: what does it mean? what does it mean?
p385: hell yes liam! slay

Content Warnings

calamitywindpetal's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

styxx's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

libraryghost's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

mahi_nad's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense

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

3.5

3.5 stars

“Things'll get worse before they get better.”
That's a quote from One of Us is Lying, and oh boy, is it true.

REVIEW:
Going into Such Charming Liars, I wasn’t expecting too much, especially after my experience with One of Us is Lying. But this book really surprised me. While I anticipated some of the twists, a few of them caught me so off guard that I had to put the book down just to process what happened. Even though I saw some of the reveals coming, others hit with enough force to make the story feel gripping and unexpected. And the characters' trauma? Dang, that hit hard. This book definitely upped my personal view of McManus and her books.
And the characters' trauma? That hit deep. Especially Jamie's. This book definitely elevated my opinion of McManus and her writing.

The only issue I had was the pacing—it was all over the place. It started off slow, then suddenly, BAM, it throws unexpected twists at you. I was also hoping for more from the heist aspect of the book. I wanted a real heist, you know? While it's understandable since it's primarily a murder mystery, I would've loved to see more of those classic heist elements.

BOTTOM LINE:
Fun murder mystery, good plot twists

AGE RATING:
12+

Content Warnings

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

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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? Yes

4.0

This book feels different from McManus's other books, and I think it might actually be my favorite of hers this far. There are still lots of twists and turns that keep you guessing as you delve into the mystery, and I liked the heist aspect of the story. It was well-developed and made for an interesting plot.

Fans of McManus will definitely enjoy her latest installment.

Content Warnings

novelsally's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-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? No

3.25

Well I didn't guess the ending! I'm not sure if I ended up liking how everything came together but I did like the heist bits. Some of the reasoning and choice making were questionable, I'm not sure if I'd agree that 16-17 year old's are that inconsistent.

Content Warnings

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I guess when people are “tools,” all that matters is what they can do for you.

Karen McManus, the queen of young adult mysteries, is back with a mystery that is quite different from her other books. The whole plot isn’t wrapped around a murder. *gasp* Instead, we have an Ocean’s Eleven type book, which is really becoming my favorite type of mystery to read these days.

Cast of Characters:

Kat: a teenager who isn’t supposed to be following her mom’s last heist job but figured out a way to smuggle herself there regardless.
Jamie: Kat’s mother who is a jewel thief but wants out. She agrees to do this last job and then she’s cleaning herself up.
Ross Sutherland: the billionaire who is having a birthday party. Scene of the jewel heist.
Luke: A con man who makes up sob stories about him and his “young” son to get money out of unsuspecting women. Has his romantic claws in Ross Sutherland’s daughter. Was married to Jamie for 48 hours.
Liam: Luke’s teenage son who hates everything about Luke but ends up at the birthday party of Ross Sutherland so he can meet the new woman his father is interested in.

All of these characters end up in the same location one weekend. When a member of the Sutherland family ends up dead, no one knows who to trust. Jamie is sick and Kat doesn’t know who she can trust and the only person she feels she can turn to is Liam. Can she trust him?

While this was different from McManus’ other mystery books, I did still enjoy it. As expected with McManus, there were plenty of twists and turns so I wasn’t sure how things were going to pan out. I personally also enjoyed there were only two POVs to keep track of - sometimes I can get lost when there’s more than three characters telling the story. For whatever reason in this story I couldn’t keep everyone’s names straight so I kept mixing up who was who. That definitely impacted my enjoyment of the book. I do think teenagers are going to enjoy this book!

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