Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

72 reviews

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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jaylee_books's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25


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smdamm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

Too much mention and detail of rapes and other traumas. The author seemed to want to write a book of her own musings regarding the treatment of sexual assault cases by the criminal justice system. She didn’t seem to come to an explicit conclusion. I slogged through this book for a very disappointing and predictable “twist.” I should have DNFed this one. All trauma and a poorly formulated plot. 

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cmcryst's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.5


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sophiesometimesreads's review

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

4.0

I listened to the audiobook version of this story. I liked the different narrators for Rachel and Hannah, and it really made the podcast chapters come to life.

This was a heavy story, so check the trigger warnings before reading, but I really liked the discussion around rape and sexual assault, and the difficulties victims face in trying to find justice, as well as how this tied the two components of the story - the trial and Hannah’s story - together.

The story was paced well and the twist at the end was reasonable and wasn’t completely out of the blue, though it wasn’t completely shocking either as I did expect the stories to blend together somehow. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this but it was more of a mystery than it was a thriller.

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megob's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Really great book, great plot and pacing and format. Really difficult to read due to the content. 

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lmshearer's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

A generous 3 stars for this forgettable 'thriller'. The rating would have been lower had I not listened to this on audio at 3x speed (the narration was painfully slow and disjointed). 

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ashleechmiel's review against another edition

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

4.5

This book has a lot of graphic descriptions of rape and sexual assault, you will be uncomfortable at times. But honestly I think it’s about time people got uncomfortable. This may be a fiction novel but so much of it really hits home with the realities of how sex crimes are seen and handled. There are two interwoven plot lines here and you will go back and forth on who is guilty in the Stills case, and you don’t find out until the very end. I didn’t know how that story line was going to flush out with so little left in the book but it did very smoothly. 

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drraytay's review

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challenging dark emotional sad

4.0


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katyannreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-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

4.25


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