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dr_aebsouza's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I enjoyed that the who-dunnit aspect didn't turn out the way I'd expected and (without spoiling it) flipped the stereotype on it's head.
I love the then/now perspectives and the way the story is told from multiple points of view.
Lisa Jewell is a terrific writer who comes up with chillingly good plots. This book is no exception.
โญ4.75
Moderate: Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Confinement, Child death, Infertility, Emotional abuse, and Murder
Minor: Rape, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Stalking
koreydobbert's review against another edition
- 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
2.5
Graphic: Toxic relationship and Addiction
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Murder, Animal death, Kidnapping, Addiction, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage
Minor: Death of parent, Infertility, Medical content, Terminal illness, Car accident, Grief, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault
spellbindingtomes's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
โข
This was my first book in the thriller genre in a very long time and I really enjoyed it. Lisa's storytelling was both captivating and disturbing.
There wasn't much suspense throughout the story and I think that's in part because of how Lisa chose to tell the story. She provided a lot of information upfront on the 'who' and 'why' and the reader just had to figure the 'how'. Because of that, the reveal toward the end didn't surprise me.
I like that each part started with a different narrator and we got to see inside the heads of the main players in this story. Some of the content in the second half were incredibly hard to read, but I thought this was still a good reintroduction into the genre. I can't wait to read more of Lisa's works!
โข
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฉ๐ข๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ . . . ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐ด ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ญ๐บ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถโ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ.
Graphic: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Death, Stalking, Abandonment, Child death, Grief, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy
Minor: Suicide, Animal death, and Miscarriage
morgannayman's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Murder, Suicide, Kidnapping, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
juanat77's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Grief, Suicide, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Child abuse, Medical content, Animal death, Child death, Alcohol, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Gun violence, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Vomit
booplesnoot_'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Death, Child abuse, and Suicide
stephlevinemommachine's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Child death and Kidnapping
Moderate: Suicide and Violence
Minor: Animal death
niclantsov's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
If you are looking for a mystery book with a grandeur plot twist, then sadly this book is not for you. You actually could put the two and two together on the 15% mark.
Every trope that I hated literally sitting cozily in this book:
-Witty, smart kid, who retorts smart remarks and give relationship advice to adults, she's nine ffs.
-Unlikable main character, as you know the MC of this book is the Grieving Mother (Lauren). She literally said this after her other daughter told her that she's starving because The Mother's been too focusing on her recent missing daughter, in result neglecting her other obligations. "It should be you missing and Ellie eating beans on toast"Praying that my mother will never act like her.
-The writing is not my cup of tea, it's too one dimensional, I have 0 sympathy towards any of the characters.
I'm going to talk about the Grieving Mother here: Lauren never moved on from her missing daughter, her mind is literally a decade behind her body. That's the only thing she thinks about. And by doing that she neglected all of her other children and husband, and when her husband seem to have moved on about Ellie (the missing daughter) and started feeling happy again, Lauren hated that (she clearly don't want to be miserable alone), resulting in their divorce. Same goes with her children, they left her. I get that Lauren lost her daughter, and the author clearly wanted Lauren to act like how a mother would act losing their child, but it was written poorly, and it resulted to an unlikable character.
This is my first Lisa Jewell book, and I was disappointed. Would I read her other works? Yes.
Graphic: Rape, Murder, and Suicide
sierrabowers's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Miscarriage, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Infertility, Pregnancy, Suicide, Grief, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Animal death, Child abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Blood, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Stalking, Violence, Child death, Sexual assault, Murder, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, and Trafficking
shels96's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Minor: Suicide