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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The whiplash from “That’s Windgap — we all know each other’s secrets, and we all use them” to “I’m doing drugs with my 13-year-old sister” is actually wild 💀
A reporter with very unhealthy coping mechanisms returns to her childhood Midwestern town to investigate some murdered girls, clashing with her almost cartoonishly whiny mother and sinister half-sister along the blood-splattered and sex-soaked way.
I think I was expecting a more psychological vibe from this, what with all the hype about “Gone Girl” and its author, but it’s more of a meandering, small town, gossipy, soap opera-type mystery that ultimately takes a hard left turn into domestic horror ala “Rosemary’s Baby” or “We Need To Talk About Kevin” or “Baby Teeth.”
Definitely a dark book with some very fucked up people, if a bit melodramatic. However, the plodding pace of the investigation and gathering melancholic doom over how horribly evil and twisted everyone is absolutely does not fit with how fast the truth is revealed with a hopeful gaze shoehorned in at the end.
Putting trigger warnings for this book almost gives away too many of the twists, but let’s just say that everything that could be wrong with women, is. If nothing else, it’s a powerful look at how generational harm just keeps overflowing our human containers and spilling down the line.
“If someone wants to do fucked up things to you, and you let them, you’re making them more fucked up. Then you have the control. As long as you don’t go crazy.”
“Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom. I have known so many sick women all my life. Women with chronic pain, with ever-gestating diseases. Women with conditions. Men, sure, they have bone snaps, they have backaches, they have a surgery or two, yank out a tonsil, insert a shiny plastic hip. Women get consumed. Not surprising, considering the sheer amount of traffic a woman's body experiences. Tampons and speculums. Cocks, fingers, vibrators and more, between the legs, from behind, in the mouth.”
“A child weaned on poison considers harm a comfort.”
A reporter with very unhealthy coping mechanisms returns to her childhood Midwestern town to investigate some murdered girls, clashing with her almost cartoonishly whiny mother and sinister half-sister along the blood-splattered and sex-soaked way.
I think I was expecting a more psychological vibe from this, what with all the hype about “Gone Girl” and its author, but it’s more of a meandering, small town, gossipy, soap opera-type mystery that ultimately takes a hard left turn into domestic horror ala “Rosemary’s Baby” or “We Need To Talk About Kevin” or “Baby Teeth.”
Definitely a dark book with some very fucked up people, if a bit melodramatic. However, the plodding pace of the investigation and gathering melancholic doom over how horribly evil and twisted everyone is absolutely does not fit with how fast the truth is revealed with a hopeful gaze shoehorned in at the end.
Putting trigger warnings for this book almost gives away too many of the twists, but let’s just say that everything that could be wrong with women, is. If nothing else, it’s a powerful look at how generational harm just keeps overflowing our human containers and spilling down the line.
“If someone wants to do fucked up things to you, and you let them, you’re making them more fucked up. Then you have the control. As long as you don’t go crazy.”
“Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom. I have known so many sick women all my life. Women with chronic pain, with ever-gestating diseases. Women with conditions. Men, sure, they have bone snaps, they have backaches, they have a surgery or two, yank out a tonsil, insert a shiny plastic hip. Women get consumed. Not surprising, considering the sheer amount of traffic a woman's body experiences. Tampons and speculums. Cocks, fingers, vibrators and more, between the legs, from behind, in the mouth.”
“A child weaned on poison considers harm a comfort.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Murder
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
one of the most unsettling and intense books I’ve ever read to be honest
TW: SA, self harm, murder, gore
TW: SA, self harm, murder, gore
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There’s books that are dark, and then there’s “hey, maybe you shouldn’t write that, wtf is wrong with you books”. This book made me sick and angry. I really struggle to see the point of it other than to shock and disgust. I hated this book so much. I hated all of the characters and their weird 1940s villain way of acting and talking. I hated that none of their reactions to anything happening were appropriate. I hate that the “protagonist’s” trauma was the only thing that made her the protagonist. Nobody was well developed or complicated, it was like the water in the town made them all monsters, except I would have give this book two stars if there had been some stupid supernatural twist reasoning for it because that would have been something. Instead they were just the worst of humanity, not as any social commentary mind you, but just to AGAIN, shock and disgust the reader. I kind of hate myself finishing this book.
P.S. it was also predictable to anyone with basic reading comprehension.
P.S. it was also predictable to anyone with basic reading comprehension.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character