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Reviews tagging 'Death'

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

150 reviews

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Jättebra bok! I mitten blir den lite långtråkig men annars superbra!
Väldigt intressant

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The ending felt rushed, and I found the other storyline more interesting than the main story itself. 

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emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was rather a tough read and possibly even tougher to review.  First off, it really, really should have had trigger warnings at the start of it.  Not putting TW in is like not saying the dog dies in Old Yeller - kind of reckless and mean.  Anyway, to say Sally Diamond is a socially awkward human being is like saying the sea is wet; it doesn't even begin to capture the unusual woman, the way her mind works, the way she acts, and the way she exists.  More to the point, it ignores the why of her.  Rescued with her mother (who had been kidnapped at a young age, raped, and held hostage for years), Sally had some serious development issues built in and, I'm sorry to say, her adoptive father Tom didn't help as much as he thought he did.  Mostly because, while his deceased wife treated Sally as both a case study AND a human being entrusted to her care and love, he primarily saw her as a case study and let the girl do what she wanted, never pushing her out of her comfort zone for most of her life.  So Sally is really out of her depth when he dies and takes him literally when he joked about "just putting him out with the garbage" when he went.  

The book spends a lot of time covering Sally's growth and challenges and you come to root for her as she tries so hard to be both true to herself and still become better adjusted.  That is the main timeline and POV.  Then there is the flashback timeline with a kid/teen/adult named Steven that is considerably less hopeful and enriching.  Mostly because his dad is a bloody pedophile who, while he doesn't touch Steven, definitely warps the kid's growth and mental state.  Lots of fun, right?  Those are ROUGH chapters.  Nugent does mitigate the horror somewhat by being pretty clinical and dry in her writing of those sections.  

The end, though, is what really got me.  It was just... Look, we all know that Sally isn't going to ever be how she would have been without that childhood.  But we have hope for her.  Hope is such a precious thing and so easily crushed.  I don't easily forgive further crushing of already hurt butterflies.

So it wasn't a bad book but it wasn't a great book, in my opinion.  It was well paced, solid character work, detailed plotting... But it was a hard book to read and made harder by the details and layers of pain and abuse and smothering of hope.

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I could not put this book down. Darkest book I’ve read in a while, it really gave me anxiety! And I am definitely frustrated with the ending. However, I was so invested in the story.  It’s so freaky to think
Peter was able to escape
:( 

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dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I loved this! I listened to the audiobook which was incredibly well done and made the story all the more enjoyable. 10 hours of blissful listening. Fantastic story with twists and turns along the way, just the way I like it. I found the ending to be satisfying and nothing was rushed. Highly recommend this gem.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Hey Siri, what's the opposite of hopeful? It was so interesting to read their thoughts and their developments. I was smiling so much at Sally's bluntness especially about children and Mark. I had so much hope until the end. I was gutted! 

This book is very dark, but also does a good job of showing the many aspects of people. Like Peter says, not everyone is totally good or bad. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings