Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

50 reviews

perplexed's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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? It's complicated

2.25

Once again I'm coming in with a really torn review 

I will say now that there might be some spoilers in this review, and I'll flag them, but proceed with caution. Also TW: I reference SA and violence in this review

There were elements of this book I loved. The whole idea of "how well do you really know someone" is a trope I love to see explored, and this book started off doing that really well. I also really loved the main characters, Claire and Lydia, and part of the reason I finished the book was because I wanted to make sure they got out of their shenanigans okay.

I call it shenanigans because why wouldn't you get law enforcement involved, like surely if the FBI was there you'd be like hey so uh there's all this shit happening with my husband, here look at these videos, please help. Totally get the whole police and criminal corruption thing, but Fred Nolan was very obviously not involved with that (his interview with Claire later on in the book clearly showed this I think

 

That being said, so much of this book felt like gratuitous detail. I get that you want to make it clear how brutal something is, but you could get that without needing to graphically describe acts of SA and torture. I love body horror and gore, but the repeated graphic descriptions were *a lot* and I really recommend giving this book a skip if you're effected by any of the trigger warnings mentioned on these reviews. 

Also, shout out to the fact that either Claire or Karin Slaughter thinks that TOR is an illegal file sharing site. Very much legal, it's just a browser like Google Chrome but it doesn't track you, so I think TOR is actually the real good guy in this book. 

PS. Dad if you're reading this hello, please don't judge me for the books I've been reading recently, I've been on a kick of gross books ever since American Psycho but none seem to scratch the itch of violence with a message and they've all just landed on gratuitous violence instead :-( onto a Christmas romance novel next though so, bet you can't wait for that review! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Death, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Suicide, Stalking, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Gaslighting, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Body shaming, Car accident, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

maddiegrace's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Violence, Torture, Stalking, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Rape, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Child death, Body horror, Blood, and Addiction

talsbooknook's review

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, and Police brutality

izypup's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Torture, and Confinement

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Stalking, Trafficking, and Vomit

Minor: Infertility and Pregnancy

crashiebang's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-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

4.25

Mind the content warnings - but a really well-written thriller.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Rape, Body horror, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Gaslighting, Blood, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Body shaming, Police brutality, Misogyny, Infidelity, Drug use, Drug abuse, Confinement, Car accident, Bullying, Addiction, and Abandonment

amaris13's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit

mikahasbadtaste's review against another edition

dark sad 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, and Violence

shaymurph's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Kidnapping, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, and Suicide

Minor: Addiction, Death of parent, and Vomit

alyreadsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

the_escapist's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I don’t want to say too much because it’s better going into it partially blind, but I will say this: it’s very graphic in places. A lot of the content is dark and massively messed up, and that’s either going to entice people or put them off.

Plot: involves the family of a missing young woman and a theme of ‘is it better to know what happened or remain ignorant?’.

I was fairly meh for around the first 25% of this book. Then there was an ‘oh shit’ moment. Followed by several more ‘oh shit!‘ moments at increasing volume. Then the last 75% was ridiculously gripping.

Amazingly tense, very fast to read writing style (might’ve helped with not inspecting potential plot holes too closely though – I suspect that on a reread some plot stuff wouldn't hold up as well), great character development, and it makes you fear for the characters and feel for them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Police brutality, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit