Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

10 reviews

imds's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Classism, Death, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Vomit, and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicide and Abortion

jkononova's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.25

I breezed through this book in two days, and here are my thoughts! The Plot was firmly a three-star read for me; it was very entertaining and scratched a very specific literary itch that I was feeling, but not a book I'm likely to think much about much after turning its final page. I found that the writing throughout the unraveling of the main mystery was a bit too hand-hold-y (read: a loooot of foreshadowing) and not fucked up enough for my tastes, but I still thoroughly enjoyed reading the story, though I'll admit that I started skimming through a good fraction of the words on each page when I was roughly 80% through the book. (For context, this opinion is coming from someone who loves Gillian Flynn's writing and actively relishes in how disturbed I feel when reading her books.) I also endlessly support all authors that explicitly and intelligently call out misogyny in their work, which Jean did here several times, in ways that were direct but still felt natural to the story, so cheers to that!

I had a couple gripes with the writing, mainly that, in my opinion, it fell a bit too into the "tell, not show" category, which felt deeply ironic and out-of-place for a book so centered around quality literature. Additionally, there seemed to be a lack of commas after introductory clauses, which made the book somewhat challenging to read out loud, especially with how long-winded some of the sentences were (not sure if this is just a problem with the Libby version of the book).

The book-in-the-book Crib seemed to suffer from some of the same issues, almost like a pale imitation of a Gillian Flynn novel.

(Though, to be fair, this may just be a combination of the challenges of writing in third person and deliberate stylistic choices. And also, like, I have exactly zero best-selling books in publication, so what do I really know about good writing that the author doesn't, lol.)

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Addiction, and Adult/minor relationship

dexkit10's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Murder, Child death, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

londonsetterby's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Murder, Stalking, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, and Pregnancy

Minor: Vomit

Death from anaphylactic food allergy

pphector's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child abuse and Pregnancy

mlthomas234's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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

I enjoyed this book. The main character Jake is not particularly likable but he is understandable. I also liked the “story within the story” device and how we watched the plot unfold. A pretty solid thriller. I’m not giving it five stars for two reasons: for one, the first act is extremely slow. What the book summary shows as the premise (man steals plot, gets weird message) takes up the first THIRD of the book. This really didn’t feel necessary and ultimately I don’t think that long build up was consequential to the story. Secondly, the twist was fairly predictable— very shortly after that 30% mark. I don’t think a plot twist being predictable makes it a bad book— just didn’t blow me away.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Child death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Death, Child abuse, Suicide, Vomit, Violence, Sexual content, Self harm, Pregnancy, Addiction, and Abandonment

Minor: Abortion

rachaelmaris's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I HAD TO STAY UP LATE TO SEE IF I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE PLOT TWIST. I ALMOST WAS. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death and Child abuse

Minor: Murder and Drug abuse

jccausey's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Child abuse

bigbooks_smallshelves's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Addiction, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

katyisreading's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

3.5

THE PLOT follows Jake, a once "new and notable" writer whose career flatlined after his second book didn't live up to the promise of his first. While Jake is teaching at a low residency MFA program, an obnoxious student tells him his idea for a book with a genius plot. A few years later, when Jake hears the student has died, he writes the book himself, only to find that his ex-student was hiding dangerous secrets. 

The first 30% of THE PLOT was very hard to get through - a lot of woe-is-me from the main character, which I struggle with, especially when the MC is a white man. I think we're supposed to feel annoyed with him, but still. It was a lot. But once we got into this book, I really liked it! I knew what was going to happen after about 60% of the way in, but that didn't impact my enjoyment of watching it play out.

I recommend this for people who liked The Silent Patient, and maybe recommend against it for anyone who wants to be an author, because I think it would be super discouraging! 

The audio was fantastic! Thank you to MacMillan audio for my free copy! THE PLOT is out May 11.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Child abuse