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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Told in first-person, Grace is the single narrator. The chapters are done in the past and present, switching back and forth. Major trigger warnings ⚠️ including dog abuse. (I understand why the author used it, but I am not a fan of reading stories with animal cruelty.) It is the author's debut into the psychological thriller genre. I liked the tense and twist. The character development was good.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
This book hit close to home, so it often made me a little uncomfortable. However, I feel like that made the book as captivating as it was.
Remind me why people read stuff like this... It's not fun. It's not relaxing. In fact, it kept me up until 5 am after reading about Molly's fate (I saw it coming, but that doesn't change how much I hated it) and I kind of wanted to throw up most of the time while I was reading this book. I'm fine with pushing boundaries in literature, even pushing multiple boundaries at once, but this one pretty much was it. Animal neglect and abuse, domestic abuse (verbal, mental, and sexual mostly), and threatened abuse towards a very sweet, very bright mentally disabled person? Nope. Not what I want in my fiction
The ending is all that's keeping me from giving this book a solid two stars, as it worked out well in the end. I also really loved Esther, as she was extremely intelligent and knew from the start that something was very, very wrong with the perfect picture she was being shown.
While I normally keep the books I acquire, I don't intend to keep this one. I also doubt I'll ever bother with reading another book by B. A. Paris again, as her ability to come up with stuff like this scares me. She's an excellent writer, don't get me wrong, but if she's going to write about this much abuse and torture, I don't want in on it.
The ending is all that's keeping me from giving this book a solid two stars, as it worked out well in the end. I also really loved Esther, as she was extremely intelligent and knew from the start that something was very, very wrong with the perfect picture she was being shown.
While I normally keep the books I acquire, I don't intend to keep this one. I also doubt I'll ever bother with reading another book by B. A. Paris again, as her ability to come up with stuff like this scares me. She's an excellent writer, don't get me wrong, but if she's going to write about this much abuse and torture, I don't want in on it.
challenging
dark
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:
Complicated
The only reason that this book got even a fraction of a star was the very last page or so. But jesus. It was straight up offensive, both in how it was written and how they portrayed the character with down syndrome. Also it was cliche and kind of boring.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting
The dog dies, animal cruelty
It was very good in the sense that it kept me interested but some parts were very difficult to read based on the context.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes