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theinstabookworm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
THE BAD: The writing wasn't my favourite. I also wanted more suspense and shock factor.
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, and Murder
rachelwhicker06's review against another edition
- 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: Death, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Stalking, and Car accident
Minor: Child death, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
honey_coated_chapters's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Infertility, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, and Suicide attempt
caitlynischeckedout's review against another edition
4.0
The premise of this pulled me in immediately. I couldn’t wait to get this in the mail and bumped it up to the top of my TBR quickly. I was so invested in figuring out the ending I read it pretty much straight through, I could not put it down. It was tense and I *needed* to find out what was going to happen but at the same time, it felt like a lot of it was more drawn out than necessary. Was it just that good at tension? I’m not sure, but I was getting impatient closer to the end and found myself wanting to skim to skip through some scenes.
I think the author’s goal was to make the villain cringey and unlikeable and he definitely succeeded at that. I was visibly cringing and had to set the book down at several points to recover, hahah! This book also includes the author’s story in between chapters, which is both interesting and creepy also. I do like that you got to see how the narrators differed in their viewpoints and the story they were telling.
I also couldn’t help but like Emma as a main character. She made some mistakes but I liked that she never laid down and gave up, she kept fighting! I liked the message that even if it’s just for your dog- keep fighting.
I do feel that one of the plot twists was a bit overdone.
What made it so hard to rate though was the way I tore through it! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! So even though there were some points I wasn’t a fan of and you have to suspend some serious disbelief at points, I’m rounding upwards and I think I will be checking out the author’s other works!
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Vomit, and Murder
Moderate: Child death and Death
kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
greatestheights's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
More spoilers from here on out, as I bravely dare to rate and review a thriller about a murderous writer going after the bored, grieving woman who roasted his book on Amazon. I too am bored and grieving, but this is Goodreads, and I promise not to be too mean.
Anyway.
I am once again absolutely begging thriller writers to please, for the love of God, stop writing villains with mental illness. It is not the fun plot device you think it is! I've known and cared for two people who have Howard's diagnosis, and it's not a goddamn punch line. People with mental illness are far more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators of it. Too, Howard's diagnosis was a red herring. It added nothing to his character except to perpetuate a bunch of gross stereotypes.
That aside, I enjoyed a lot of things about this book. It was entertaining, creepy, full of twists, and the aforementioned (alive!) dog should have been the narrator. I also spent a ton of time rolling my eyes, sending screenshots to my best friend demanding to know how there could be so many hours left in the audiobook by the fifth time I thought it surely had to be drawing to a close, and wondering how many more times Howard was going to bisect something.
This is just a PSA to all white ladies: If you smell synthetic butter around your remote rental house and think a shadowy figure is watching you sleep, do not pass go, do not collect whatever the fuck, do not CONTINUE BLITHELY LIVING IN THE HOUSE — just leave. Also, don't play Hangman with random old men who have telescopes. Also also, how did this genius astrophysicist warrior woman not know what Hangman was?!
A BIG TW BELOW:
tw tw tw tw infant loss!!!
Idk why I keep picking up books that have surprise infant loss plotlines, but lol, I keep finding them. The detail was particularly brutal, and even though I knew it was coming, I sobbed for the last hour of this book.
Lots of other stuff to say about the plot and characters and Emma's interesting range of choices, but I've truly gone on long enough and I'm still not sure how I want to rate it. Twoish stars because...*gestures broadly*
Taylor Adams, if you're reading this, please don't murder me with a katana.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism and Bullying
cates_reading_nook's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Body horror and Blood
Moderate: Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, and Murder
Minor: Child death and Car accident
mflynn8908'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
4.0
I did guess what was going to happen about 50% into the story but the author had some twists towards the end that made me second guess if I was correct or not so it did keep me invested in reading the story.
This is the second book I’ve read from this author so far and I can say that I actually enjoyed this one much more than I enjoyed no exit.
Graphic: Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death and Car accident
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Blood, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
ohhthehorrors's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
minimicropup's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
- Set in winter along an isolated stretch of coast in Washington, USA
🔔 Somehow the narration on the audio wasn't working for me. I think it just killed the suspense / darkness. The narrator wasn't bad, just maybe not a book that was good on audio for me personally.
No rating because this genre / plot just isn't for me (not b/c I'm scared to rate this, I swear 😉). I knew the genre and plot going in, so I wasn't mislead, I just had a serious case of FOMO when this was released. It's heavy on the action/adventure fight-for-your life plot so I had to skim a bit as I usually do for this genre, and I can't tell if it's because some scenes are too drawn out or because I always lose interest too quickly. The later part of the plot made me feel exhausted, but it wasn't OTT or poorly done, just taxing for me! I loved the tongue-in-cheek humour sprinkled throughout, meaningful commentary on the impact of book reviews and thriller/suspense/horror tropes, and creative narrative POVs.
- Home invasion fight-for-your-life survival trope
- Tragedy guiding character development
- Isolated locked-ish room suspense thriller
- Action-adventure fight/hide/flee scenes
Content Heads-Up: Home invasion and stalking. Death of a child. Car accident. [No pet deaths].
Format: Scribd Audio and Kindle
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
Minor: Animal cruelty
Animal cruelty is on page involving a dog, but for peace of mind it is via close calls, without gratuitous physical violence