Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Woman in the Library

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

82 reviews

toorsdenote's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-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

4.5

This is both a mystery/thriller, and also a book about a woman writing a book about a woman writing a book. I enjoyed trying to keep track of which level of book I was in. :-D

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chaotically_katie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.75

It had so much potential, and it’s such an interesting style of writing. But the lack of focus on the murder victim, and the main plot point of the scream, really disappointed me.

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tillyarvabelle's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

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

2.25

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pollyhall's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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thebakerbookworm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a fun little mystery and a decent audiobook. It's a book-within-a-book story, and story A kept me guessing and intrigued while story B was honestly cracking me up.

Story A is the main one, the one from the book summary, and I was expecting more of a locked-room mystery, but the library part is only at the beginning and then they quickly move on. There are a lot of red flags that distracted me from the obvious culprit, so I stayed on my toes the whole time, never really sure who the big bad was. I liked the characters, though the plot is definitely the main focus.

But what really set this book apart was story B, where we discover that story A is actually a book being written, and the author is corresponding with a beta reader about her work. Through these letters, we learn about the Australian author and the beta reader, who lives in Boston where story A takes place. These letters were mostly at the end of each chapter, with the beta reader giving commentary on the previous chapter. Like I said, they just cracked me up and the twists and turns that story B takes really made this murder mystery unique.

Give this one a listen if you like libraries or a story-within-a-story plot or books about writers or a classic whodunnit mystery.

Thanks to Libro.fm, Dreamscape Media, and the author for my ALC!

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liteartha's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

a two-fold story: a novel following a murder in the boston public library and the increasingly suspect email feedback of the novel's beta reader.

unfortunately, the story within a story format was a complete miss for me. the stylistic choice of presenting an author's manuscript interspersed with notes from her beta reader at the end of each chapter completely disrupted the flow of what was already not a particularly compelling mystery novel. i was so distracted by the commentary that i find it hard even now to comment on the murder mystery part of it all because it felt so... fake? almost entirely without consequence as it was presented as though "written" by the fictional author hannah tigone and not sulari gentill.

thank you to netgalley and poisoned pen press for providing this digital review copy in exchange for an honest review

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iamnita's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

The way this book was written, with the other letters at the end of each chapter was so unique. I love love loved that format. While initially I was like: blah blah blah, how long are we going to do this - it absolutely TOOK MY BREATH AWAY when the plot twist in this storyline happened and then I was fully invested.
Now, the main storyline: I reflect on this read and wonder whether that storyline was kind of meh - because what kept me flipping was this other storyline. I felt like there was so much eating and drinking and just general hanging around that I'm not sure much happened until it all came together.
Now, the ending: I found this pretty weak and the motives pretty meh. I don't like that all of a sudden there was this HUGE villain of a character that you'd never seen before - it kind of came out of nowhere.
I do give this 4 stars because the format was something. And despite there being pandemic references, it is not so in-your-face that for those triggered it will upset the masses.

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