Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Shiver

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Shiver by Allie Reynolds

6 reviews

fraise's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

3.0

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neverlandpages4's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious medium-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

3.0

• I liked how the book immediately gets to the point. The characters, the mystery, and everything else was introduced in the first chapter and I was already suspicious of everyone.

• The chapters were short, it’s fast-paced, and almost every chapter ends with a shocking line that makes you want to immediately read the next one.

• It’s narrated in past and present POVs but you don’t actually get the full story about what happened until the very end which got repetitive because the past POV didn’t really have much other than friendship drama.

• I was really interested at first, but halfway through, almost everything was about the main character’s snowboarding career.

• Honestly, this might as well be categorized as a sports books because of the amount of details and info dumps about snowboarding this had. To be fair, I’m not in the least bit interested in snowboarding so maybe that’s why I was really bored every time the main character talked about it, but it still took over the main story. The drama and competitiveness surrounding the characters became the main focus and I really didn’t like that. There were also really weird sexist comments and stereotypes about women in sports

• I didn’t like the main character either, she used every chance she got to make sure everyone knew she’s “not like other girls” because she likes sports…

• Also, nothing the characters did made sense, you’d think they’d try everything they could to get out and get help but instead, all they did was drink and complain

• The ending has to be one of my least favorites in any thriller I’ve read. Not only was it obvious from the start, but it was also petty and childish

• I think I would’ve liked this a lot more if there was less snowboarding details and more mystery

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ellejo3's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

1.5

I love a locked-room mystery/thriller where everyone's a suspect and the snowy mountain setting was extra eerie. I enjoyed Lucy Foley's The Hunting Party, so I thought I'd love this one. The book started out slow, but the present-day timeline eventually picked up. In particular, the short chapters and the cliffhangers at the end of each chapter helped with the overall pacing. I kept wanting to read on to see what happened next. I didn't enjoy the chapters set in the past as much, mostly because a lot of the mystery is taken out of them aside from why Milla feels responsible for Saskia. A lot of the chapters set in the past felt more like filler, and given the length, wasn't really necessary.

The mystery and "twist" were pretty obvious early on, especially when you consider why there's a ten-year gap between the two timelines.

I didn't particularly care for the characters. It's not that Milla was unlikeable because there are unlikeable characters that I find compelling or that I'm rooting for, but there wasn't enough for me to care about her. She was grating and annoying and that wasn't balanced out either by positive traits or by anything else that would make me sympathetic for her. She's a former Olympic hopeful who didn't make it and hasn't figured out what else to do with her life until the epilogue. Not making the Olympic team isn't enough for me to feel sympathy for her, especially when you consider how much time and energy she wasted obsessing over Saskia and trying to sabotage her. What's irritating is that there could have been more. For instance, Milla was extremely competitive and couldn't ever turn a challenge down, but the reasoning behind it wasn't really explored. Not exploring more of Milla's backstory and her "emotional wound" was a missed opportunity, especially since half of the book is set in the past. I didn't understand what drove her competitive streak. In real life, when people are that competitive, there's a reason. There also wasn't a lot of character development aside from Milla realizing she's just as bad as Saskia

but even that was lacking because, in the epilogue, when Milla starts coaching she has two girls who are trying to sabotage each other as she and Saskia had. All she does is slyly tell the one girl, but she doesn't make a point to reprimand them or condemn it. It's also disappointing given the last line where Milla excitedly comments that she "won." She sounds like a sociopath. I think it was supposed to be this shocking last line, but it was more frustrating than an "OMG what an ending!" type of reaction.

What took this from a "meh" book to a book that I disliked is its treatment of gay characters. By far, the trope I hate most in thrillers is when the only gay character is out to destroy the straight characters. Here, the only gay characters are the villains of the past and present.

As for Milla, while she hooks up with Saskia, she doesn't identify as bi or pan, but states that she was drawn to Saskia because everyone was allured by her.

I can't believe this trope was included in a book that was published in 2021. Homophobia in literature isn't limited to a character being rejected or condemned for being gay, it's also representations like this where the gay character is trying to kill the cast of straight characters, or is otherwise the villain. I wish Milla would have been bi/pan because it's different if there are several gay characters and one of them is the villain. But this? No.

This book also plays into the bury-your-gays and the bi/pan character is slutty tropes.

The fact that it's the only diversity in the book makes it even more problematic. Overall, the way the queer characters were used is tired, problematic, and harmful.

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thrillofthepage's review

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-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

5.0

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kyrstin_p1989's review

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

I got this book from Once Upon a Bookclub. It came with gifts that were connected to the story that you couldn’t open until you got to certain pages. That was a good motivator to start this book and read it quickly, but the writing is pretty good and the story has a lot of twists and turns so that helped too. The gifts were a lot of fun. This book was, as far as mystery/suspense whodunnit murder stories go, pretty good. About 3/4 of the way in, I guessed part of the mystery but the details surrounding it were definitely surprising. The overarching themes of competition and the need to succeed are universal and the characters, even at their worst, are pretty likeable.

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stackwoodlibrary's review

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adventurous dark 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? Yes

2.5

I'm not a sports person, not interested in snowboarding (you crazy folks!) but this was a gripping read and a fine debut. I *did* look at half-pipe videos on YouTube, nope, not for me but amazing stuff.
If you don't like cliffhangers, don't pick this up, omg, every chapter. I thought it would drive me nuts but it had a real flow and was a very fast read.

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