Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

23 reviews

julells's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Eine in meinen Augen absolut einzigartige Geschichte mit vielen interessanten Wendungen, auch wenn ich sie an einigen Stellen etwas verworren fand.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Drug abuse, Child death, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Death, and Death of parent

atamano's review

dark mysterious 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Child death, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, and Sexism

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

davinmotion's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed this overall- it was a quick and fun read. The discussion about plagiarism that this book stirs up, whether you read it on your own or with a group of people, is very insightful. There’s no “right” answer and it brings to mind, for me, the controversy with art and AI. Plagiarism and what falls under its umbrella will continue to be debated for years to come, so it’ll never not be present. This book also though, really tries to sell you that the plot Jake may or may not have plagiarized is a brand new literary device. The build up to it is so great you’re nearly furious to know what it is, so that when you finally hear it…you’ll have opinions. I admire what this author did and how they pieced together this story, but I think I’ll always prefer Stephen King’s novella with the same question of plagiarism since I prefer the character of Morton Rainey more. That said, I still think the story that Jean Hanff Korelitz spins is worth the read if you want a fun and fast mystery.  

Also, the passing reference to Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his husband was not lost on me and was incredibly unexpected. I highly recommend his books if you haven’t already, for his voice is a unique look into a life many of us have likely never experienced firsthand, and his humor despite some of the circumstances he finds himself in, is fantastic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse

Moderate: Stalking

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, Murder, and Death of parent

I think “Anna” is supposed to feel like a more mature manic pixie girl in her introduction, but I found her suspicious fairly quickly. I really wonder if we were intended to pick up that something was off about her and consistently question her arrival as the story progressed, or if we were to focus on instead on Talented Tom being Martin or someone we were yet to meet. This is the weakest part for me, as well as the question of plagiarism in the first place, since some in my book club felt he never plagiarized at all. So to people that see little wrong in taking Evan’s plot, the whole novel becomes more of a character study of Jake and why he is so distraught, which loses some of the appeal.

wackly93's review

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Death of parent and Child death

karly_ackley's review

mysterious sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Child death, Death of parent, and Murder

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

chupacobbruh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Child death, and Suicide

soft_plush's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I have this book a 4 because it was better than I was expecting. Yes I kind of guessed the twist, but even before I got to the twist I was second guessing myself if I was correct. Turns out I had guessed correctly but still was kind of shocked by the end. Better than expected in my opinion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug use, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Cursing, Grief, Murder, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Minor: Alcohol and Cursing

in my opinion Anna was wrong about Jake stealing in a sense she said that he stole Evans story which in turn Evan stole her story from the beginning. I personally don’t see how jake could have known because he only barely remembered Evans original plot to begin with but I could have just read it wrong or differently who knows.

beccasherman's review

dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, and Child death