Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

57 reviews

ohyeahshebomb's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

the only time that gaslighting is okay (me, I have been gaslit)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body shaming, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Chronic illness, Confinement, Pedophilia, Violence, Ableism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Torture, Vomit, Grief, Alcohol, Child death, Excrement, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, and Sexual assault

nn11's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Stalking

pages_of_devin's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Violence, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Grief, Pedophilia, Murder, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

notlikethebeer's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

I have really mixed feelings on this. 

On the one hand, it was incredibly gripping and compelling, to the point that I read it as close to "all in one" that adult life allows. I found myself racing through the pages, reading in tiny snippets if that was all I had, desperate to find out what would happen next. I particularly liked the use of both the podcast and the Netflix documentary, both of these provided an interesting way to explore the story and create a lot of suspense as to what was going on. The idea of 'Instagram v reality' was interesting in isolation, but maybe a little over-done for thrillers.

On the other hand, I did have issues with this book! In terms of actual content, I think there was a level of potentially quite harmful victim-blaming around the relationship between Josie and Walter, that she had led him on or manipulated him. As another review says, a child cannot consent to a relationship with an adult, regardless of how "sociopathic" she is. I also found the reactions to

Josie's revelation that Walter was abusing Erin

highly unsettling. On a more general note, I wonder whether a major flaw of this book was how it was set up. The name, the blurb, everything sets you up to disbelieve a word Josie says - so I didn't believe anything she said, which did make a lot of the twists a lot less climatic! I think a lot of my ferocious reading came because I wanted to see what the big twists would be, how they would be shocking in the context of a deeply unreliable character. And I don't feel that that was delivered on, really.

Please note, major content notes for child abuse, physical abuse, alcohol addiction, sexual abuse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, and Domestic abuse

whatemilysreading's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

An engaging story, my brain is exhausted from questioning every single line from every single character.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder

lacykells's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Stalking

lweaxride's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Stalking, Sexual violence, Rape, and Mental illness

mads_jpg's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.5

I have a lot of thoughts about this book. 

The positives:

• I liked the non-linear storytelling through the Netflix clips that start to reveal certain details.
• The story was interesting enough that I read it quite quickly despite the length.

The negatives (Spoilers!):

• The book seems to paint Josie as a man-hating feminist, which doesn't sit right when she then goes on to kill the only men in the story.
• The author said in the acknowledgements that she wrote this book in less than a year, and it shows, because given the inclusion of something as sensitive as pedophilia she did not portray it in a responsible way.
• I can't tell if the book is a commentary on or a victim of the idea of the 'perfect victim' who never does anything wrong. 
• The way the author described Josie's grooming by Walter was awful in almost every case, either saying she "allowed herself to be groomed" or that she in fact wasn't groomed at all and actually seduced Walter herself. Which still wouldn't make it ok since the adult is ultimately responsible for shutting that kind of thing down.
• Every character is incredibly unlikable, and their actions make no sense. E.g Pat who is reviled as this full of life, go getting woman just let's her 16-year-old daughter take her 40-year-old boyfriend from her? And doesn't do anything to stop it?
• Why the hell is Alix still working on the podcast after Nathan goes missing AND after he's confirmed murdered?!?!?! I was reading this assuming the police/documentary filmmakers had gotten a copy of the podcast, not that she'd RELEASED THE DAMN THING.
• Alix mourns Josie's victims as people who were killed "for no good reason at all", and that was a big issue for me. I really did feel like I had no idea why she would go this far, and the last minute twist in the epilogue doesn't account for that.
• I'm all for an unreliable narrator story, but at no point did it feel like the reader had any chance at following what was really going on, and the ambiguous ending made that even more frustrating, but that's probably just a me thing and not a legitimate issue.
• It was also bloody annoying how many times the author said Josie could hear the sound of Erin's headphones through the door, there's literally no way that's possible without Erin sustaining serious ear damage, I'm sorry but no.

Overall this felt like a dangerously careless representation of some very serious issues given the amount of trigger warnings I had to add to this review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Sexism, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Violence

haleysversion's review against another edition

challenging dark 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: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

idk_indigo's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.75

This is (I believe) my 2nd book by Lisa Jewell, & I loved it! I was a bit confused by the school in summer, but I guess the British do it differently out there, or maybe it was summer school? Either way, this book was phenomenal! I finished it in 1 day, & it certainly kept me on my toes. It was eery to think about the idea that people who have done evil, horrendous things, often think they’re being helpful & that they’re doing the kind thing. I do wish more of Pat’s storyline was discussed, ie, it can’t have been easy being raised by a singe narcissistic mother; I feel like her general come-through was “I know I wasn’t the best mother, but Josie was a lot…” & it felt weird & dismissive to not only the character development, but also the storyline. I also enjoyed the almost detached narration; we as readers don’t really see the MCs’ inner workings. We hear about their narrative, & obviously I always love an unreliable narrator, but we don’t hear a lot about the fear or anger they are experiencing, which in all honesty I kind of liked, I think? It made it interesting, & for Josie’s story specifically, made her feel much less real which I think was probably the point. The whole “I don’t believe people like that really exist!” Felt a bit more feasible after going the whole book not really knowing what Josie is thinking. Wish we’d gotten a bit more motive, but overall I really enjoyed! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Blood, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual violence, Violence, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Ableism, Death of parent, Drug use, Incest, and Infidelity