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Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'
How To Survive Your Murder by Danielle Valentine
30 reviews
achay91's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Violence
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
darquedreamer's review against another edition
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? Yes
1.5
I really wanted to love this one. I was promised Happy Death Day and Scream vibes, and what I got was a mash up of name dropping, movie references, and overused clichés, tropes, etc. I feel like the author tried too hard to make the story "a self aware horror/comedy", "woke", and socially acceptable, while keeping up with modern social norms, issues, etc., and lost sight of the story itself. The purposeful misdirections felt copied, forced, and overused, and the ending was too open ended and most definitely not satisfying. Now, don't get me wrong, there were some real "one line" bangers in there, like, "But real people are never just one thing. Life's a lot more complicated than that," but, there weren't enough of them to cover up the flat characters and the problems within the story.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Death, and Blood
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
behindherpages's review against another edition
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
besides this being overall horrible, plotholes automatically ruin a book for me
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Infidelity, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Self harm
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Alcohol and Body shaming
snoopyfanclub's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
I really wanted to like this book & the premise was interesting but omg it’s so convoluted lol like I think adding too much back and forth, both location wise and suspect wise starts to feel boring. I think she focused on Wes for too long and then like his death just felt like you didn’t even really care because you already thought he died and Alice barely reacts./ There were definitely too many characters and I had to keep rereading to figure out who was who. Also weird to throw in how all the girls her dad cheated with were technically above the age of consent. Like your dad is having multiple affairs with your teenage classmates that he coaches, it truly doesn’t matter what the age of consent is, it’s disgusting and abusive. Also reminded me of pretty little liars where they set up a huge dude as the killer then reveal it’s a skinny girl, like okay sure. I guess she’s tall and in a wolf costume but where tf was she keeping it in between killings because we know she had on her normal clothes and she ditched her car so? Make it make sense. I guess we just have to suspend disbelief and believe a teenage girl can commit like 50 murders and get away with it. Also, lastly, why didn’t they mention Wes as ppl Owen was accused of killing at the very end???/ I just feel unsatisfied, there was no true resolution.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Vomit
reedcodes's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, and Grief
Moderate: Alcohol and Alcoholism
Minor: Car accident and Infidelity
hayleybeeler's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
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
2.25
I'm sorry but using the word "cheugy" completely ripped me out of the story. I understand trying to accomodate a younger audience, but this book was published in 2022 and the term has already fallen completely out of style by 2023. Essentially guaranteed that a lot of the terms will be outdated in the near future. Also, the final twist made no sense given the prior 50 pages. Alice is certain her father is the killer, and says that now she understands why Claire's phone was in the neighborhood when her dad had it. Ok cool, that's a solid connection. But Claire was the killer, so why was the phone there? And she said she picked up her phone at home, but they talked on the phone before Claire went home, so how did that happen? And I refuse to believe that Alice, a character who's singular driving goal is the fact that she loves her sister, couldn't tell that the person in the costume was her teenage sister and not her grown ass father. There's just no way they had the same build, or even close enough for that to be a possibility. There were about 20 plot points that never get explained, and never will. It feels like the author realized they were about to reach 300 hundred pages so they just panic ended the story without any resolution.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Infidelity
aylin05's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
if your name is Elizabeth and you haven’t read this book yet, stop reading here.
if you’re not Elizabeth or you have read it, continue. i think overall the book was great. i was literally and figuratively on the edge of my seat for over half of it. the mystery of what would’ve happened if Claire hadn’t been killed was incredible. everyone was a suspect and it was entirely believable. so plot of the mystery itself like 5/5. perfect. the very very end i will say was definitely cliché so 4/5. but otherwise i loved it. the dialogue also was a bit odd to me. it was a little frustrating because some of the things said are such clichés and also not something a normal human would say. but then again the book is kind of supposed to be a horror movie cliché so it makes sense. also quick warning this book makes literally THOUSANDS of references. to shows, movies, books, authors, actors, actresses, etc, etc, etc. every mainstream actors name could probably be found in this book. it was really really annoying. BUT other than the overwhelming amount of unnecessary references i really really enjoyed the book. and i’d definitely recommend to fans of horrors or mysteries. like Claire only killing everyone to be famous because she was a failed actress was literally the entire plot of Scream IV to a T. 🤷♀️🤷♀️
if you’re not Elizabeth or you have read it, continue. i think overall the book was great. i was literally and figuratively on the edge of my seat for over half of it. the mystery of what would’ve happened if Claire hadn’t been killed was incredible. everyone was a suspect and it was entirely believable. so plot of the mystery itself like 5/5. perfect. the very very end i will say was definitely cliché so 4/5. but otherwise i loved it. the dialogue also was a bit odd to me. it was a little frustrating because some of the things said are such clichés and also not something a normal human would say. but then again the book is kind of supposed to be a horror movie cliché so it makes sense. also quick warning this book makes literally THOUSANDS of references. to shows, movies, books, authors, actors, actresses, etc, etc, etc. every mainstream actors name could probably be found in this book. it was really really annoying. BUT other than the overwhelming amount of unnecessary references i really really enjoyed the book. and i’d definitely recommend to fans of horrors or mysteries.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Pedophilia, Murder, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Alcoholism, Car accident, and Cursing
wallywoahjack's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Lots of emotional/tonal whiplash? If I wasn’t stuck in a car driving 14 hours it would have never been finished.
an angel? REALLY?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Suicide attempt, Child death, Grief, Car accident, Death, Gore, and Suicide
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism
nrogers_1030's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
I liked this as much as I like slasher films… not much. Shallow “valley girls” + gore + plot holes + shitty ending = this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Gore, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Infidelity
amhud1030's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
found most of the characters in this book unlikable.
The plot of the story had some great twist to it definitely kept you guessing I had a few people I suspected at the beginning and then my suspects changed midway through but never would I have guessed the ending.
There are lots of horror movie references and as in most horror movies you tend to hate the main character making stupid mistakes however the fact that the main character Alice was obsessed with horror movies and knew the mistakes that everyone always made and still did them but justified them to herself was very annoying.
Also did I mention the ending? I have so many questions!
The plot of the story had some great twist to it definitely kept you guessing I had a few people I suspected at the beginning and then my suspects changed midway through but never would I have guessed the ending.
There are lots of horror movie references and as in most horror movies you tend to hate the main character making stupid mistakes however the fact that the main character Alice was obsessed with horror movies and knew the mistakes that everyone always made and still did them but justified them to herself was very annoying.
Also did I mention the ending? I have so many questions!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Blood, Gore, Death, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Dementia, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Car accident