Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Daisy Darker : A Novel by Alice Feeney, Alice Feeney

143 reviews

sobbinghoursopen's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Child death, Mental illness, and Murder

growintogardens's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

Feeney is good at making a creepy atmosphere, and I could visualize the house really well. I didn't love the twist.

It was something I thought about early, but dismissed it. I honestly think this would have been more enjoyable if she had survived instead of becoming a ghost, and lost the memory of the accident. It would have been more creepy and crazy imo, for them to still kill the family members because of Daisy's abuse, which is what I thought before the ghost reveal.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident, Death, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Alcoholism, Bullying, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence, Grief, Suicide, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy

bubblegirl858's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

For my 2023 rating system I gave this book 4 stars. This book was an amazing read. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. I seriously enjoyed trying to figure out what was going on the entire book.

Once I got to the end of the book, I immediately restarted it and tried to make sense of the things that my brain had just auto filled with any family interactions with Daisy. I was literally kicking myself for just not noticing how none of the family interacted with her. I honestly did not see the ending twist at all, and it made the book so much more exciting once everything fell into place in the big "Clue" game they were living. The only reason this book didn't get 5 stars is because of the characters. Some of them were so irredeemable that it made me despise any scene with them and I just couldn't get over it, even if they got their karma. The siblings just causally getting rid of Daisy like that and the parents covering it up? Absolutely deserved everything that happened to them. Amazing writing on Alice Freeney's part, but I just couldn't get over it personally.

Overall, a great read and I would definitely go back and read again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Violence and Sexual content

Minor: Chronic illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, and Pregnancy

brittbottoms's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Child death

fraise's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Bullying, Murder, Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Blood, Car accident, Chronic illness, and Death of parent

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Medical content, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Suicide, Sexual content, and Animal death

savvylit's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

Daisy Darker is a tough book to rate, honestly. As a thriller, it's quite entertaining and does a good job of maintaining suspense. The conclusion and reveal genuinely surprised me! I had guessed the murderer but not the circumstances. If you enjoy fast-paced mysteries, you'll probably enjoy this! The mystery itself is a four-star idea & execution.

Though I did appreciate the suspense and homages to Agatha Christie, the actual quality of writing in Daisy Darker is not great. To the point where it frequently bothered me as a reader. I rolled my eyes at many narrative decisions. When describing Daisy's family or her past, every paragraph is absolutely LOADED with similes and metaphors. This is not a direct quote but will give you an idea of what I mean: "if families are a tapestry, ours was frayed beyond repair." The first several chapters include sentences like that multiple times within single paragraphs. It's incredibly heavy-handed. We get it! The Darker family is deeply dysfunctional.

Furthermore, the chapters tend to conclude with sentences that serve as ridiculously transparent attempts at cliffhangers: "and that was a night I'll never forget" or "my sisters' relationship was never the same again." Almost every chapter ended that way and it was so unnecessary. The cliffhanger-esque details become obvious later anyway! Again with heavy-handed narration. Just tell the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Medical content, Violence, Child death, Medical trauma, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Sexual assault and Body shaming

marik0n's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.75

I just finished reading Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney and I had the urge to immediately start re reading it!

Alice Feeney is surely the queen of dualpovs and plottwists.

Even though I was really invested in this story, I didn't like it as much as her other books.

Don't get me wrong, it was still a masterpiece, but something spoiled it for me (the ending). 

All in all it was a great read, by a great writer and I look forward to reading more of her stories.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Murder, Death of parent, Chronic illness, and Child death

Minor: Sexual content

amazingracerose's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Death

catieohjoy's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Death, Child death, and Death of parent

katharina90's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

I love stories that center dysfunctional families–so relatable. I’m also a fan of thrillers set in remote locations. This book checked both of those boxes. Sadly, I didn’t find it as atmospheric as Lucy Foley’s The Guest List, for example. 

Plot and writing overall were fine but character development was lacking so I wasn’t really invested. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Child death

Moderate: Alcoholism and Child abuse