Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

7 reviews

lovelikethiswillendintragedy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Absolutely wonderful :0
I was worried for a bit that a trope that I *despise* (

A male love interest that’s covered in red flags but still ends up with the main character

) would happen, but nope!

The guy is actually a creep, and way worse than what she thought.

I feel kind of bad for being relieved, because the outcome was way worse for the characters that were involved, but I am just so damn tired of the alternative where

the guy is really such a good guy and everything’s fine with him.

 
But enough about that. The characters are wonderful, I thought it was interesting that the iconic popular girl trio wasn’t mean like I was preparing for them to be. They’re actually really sweet and it reminds me a lot of my school!
I loved Baz’s reactions to things, he managed to be the lighthearted “funny character” while still being down to earth and bringing the focus back to Elizabeth when necessary. Absolutely wonderful chaotic good boyo and I love him with my entire heart.
All in all, this book wasn’t what I expected. (Don’t get me wrong, I expected to love it, just not for it to play out the way it did.) The themes the author intended were strong throughout the book, and I read it in like a week, it was so good. 10/10, Baz can steal my soul if he wants, he deserves it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Misogyny, Sexism, Drug use, Death, Cursing, Rape, Murder, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Death of parent, Blood, and Kidnapping

Minor: Lesbophobia, Racism, and Mental illness

naisdayz's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I'm going to write a proper review on this later, but I just finished it and need to get some of my thoughts down.

Where Sleeping Girls Lie is, no doubt, a very important story. Men are assholes.
The execution fell a little flat for me, though. First and foremost, it's too long. Period. This could have easily been 150-200 pages shorter without losing anything significant. I shouldn't have to die from boredom while reading hundreds of pages without anything majorly relevant.

There were also many repetitions and overexplanations written down, which reminded me a lot of fanfictions I used to read (alias books that haven't been edited properly).
Some examples:
"The local town was close enough to the school that it didn't take them long to get there."
"It was weird that Sade didn't recognize her at first, given that she saw her on a regular basis. She realized that not only was this the first time she had seen Persephone on a weekend, but also the first time she had seen her out of uniform, which probably explained how long it took to figure out it was her in the first place."

Despite this, it also underexplains actual important stuff. I wish things would have been discovered rather than showed to us. Sade could have also used a few more brain cells, honestly -

e.g. how come she didn't try the uv lamps earlier?

 

Once it does actually get going, it gets really intense and twisty fast, which I enjoyed. The author did a good job describing the grief and trauma Sade is going through.

There were also some really beautiful quotes in here (I'll quote some later).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Lesbophobia

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child death, Death, Bullying, Gaslighting, Grief, and Rape

Moderate: Addiction, Sexism, Stalking, Death of parent, Dementia, Drug abuse, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Confinement, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Classism, Drug use, Suicide, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny

Minor: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Body shaming, Lesbophobia, Animal death, and Physical abuse

There's a scene where a pet hamster needs to go the hospital but it ends up fine

bookishbette's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Outstanding. Somehow even better than her debut when I truly thought it was impossible to top.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Suicide, Death, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Blood, Mental illness, Rape, Drug use, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Murder, and Grief

Minor: Animal death, Racism, Stalking, and Addiction

a_libra_library's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Dear Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé 

You have just become one of my new auto buy authors.

This book is full of suspense, mystery and a true look at what dark academia means in young adult fiction. To critique and comment on educational institutions and the system and structure. 
The audiobook was amazing as well, I love when extra production is put into an audiobook to make them more engaging. 

If you love a story that keeps you guessing, full of puzzles and anagrams and unreliable narrators then this is the perfect book to recommend. This is so much more than a YA mystery thriller and I hope that anyone picking this title up can see that once they're done. 

Also there is a cute animal sidekick so, bonus points. 


 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

TW: Drowning

justinekorson's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story. 
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW
Happy Book Birthday to Faridah and this amazing story!

WOW. WHERE DO I EVEN START?! 
I've been waiting for this story for A WHILE now. I loved reading Faridah's debut "Ace of Spades" and I knew I'd love this novel too because I'm a sucker for dark academia boarding schools. This story was a lot heavier than I thought it was going to be, as was made evident from the content warnings page, and all the twists and turns it took I did not see coming. Not sure if that's because I was listening to the audiobook or because I was just oblivious to the signs as I was listening. 

Regardless, I really loved all of the characters in this book, NOT the Fishermen though, but all the girls in the Unholy Trinity, Bas, Sade, Kwame, Elizabeth. They all had a lot of depth and personality even though some of them weren't in the story as much as the others. I was even emphasizing with Francis at one point (which I didn't think I would). I enjoyed how the characters all interacted with each other and how they all had their own motives and goals for the story. Sometimes secondary characters can fall a bit flat if they're only used as plot devices and not treated as actual people but all of Faridah's characters in this story were incredibly written.

Sade having a twin sister was not something I anticipated and I doubly didn't realize Elizabeth's online friend was Sade's twin until Elizabeth revealed this. I was glad that by the end of the story the boys did end up facing consequences for their actions. I was worried towards the last few chapters that this story would end similarly to Ace of Spades where all of the perpetrators got off scot free. It's not often that I read a book on Netgalley and desire to have a physical copy of it but I'm definitely going to buy one for this story!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Suicide, Drug use, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Death, Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Self harm, and Addiction

bloodmaarked's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

2.5* rounded up. i truly hate that this is my rating but it didn't hit the same as ace of spades. still love faridah though

✧ full review on my tumblr ✧

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Animal death, Blood, Sexual assault, and Child death

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Cursing, Murder, and Addiction

Minor: Medical content, Lesbophobia, and Islamophobia