Reviews tagging 'Violence'

How To Survive Your Murder by Danielle Valentine

31 reviews

elliott_the_clementine's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I waffled over how to review this book. The main character, Alice, irked in a way reminiscent of other “final girls,” and the points at which the novel does not take itself too seriously are the places where it shines brightest. Moreover, despite mediocre execution and poor pacing overshadowing the dark, gripping plot, How to Survive Your Murder circumvents presenting fear and gore with no purpose (suggested by the book’s excessive, gory murders that threaten to cross the line set by the genre) by integrating bad-horror-movie style scenes that do not cease to entertain and leaning into the dark humor of the genre to construct a story that, while predictable, genuinely horrifies at times. A solid read. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Violence, Body horror, and Death

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 Essentially guaranteed that a lot of the terms will be outdated in the near future.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

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!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Blood, Gore, Death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Dementia, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Car accident

calamitywindpetal's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Death, Stalking, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Vomit

tanvi45's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Car accident

Minor: Infidelity and Alcohol

jocelyn62013's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Infidelity

Minor: Alcohol and Racism

I should know better than to expect a satisfying ending with time travel, but

I liked the fake out ending better than the last second surprise

lyssak's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Infidelity

Minor: Racism and Car accident

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.25

Another HIGHLY predictable "thriller" I saw 75% of the twists coming at least an hour before they happened, most at least 2 hours.
Most of the characters were flat, and I didn't really care much when they died because we didn't know that much about them.
It did have some good quotes though. And the narrator was excellent. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Alcohol, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, and Car accident