Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

30 reviews

pinkpotayto's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Good mystery! Kind of predictable, but also there were lots of twists and turns that were not! Nothing too gruesome or gory if u want the mystery without the graphic aspect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug abuse, and Violence

redefiningrachel'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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Stalking, Mental illness, Gun violence, Drug use, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Suicide, Self harm, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Eating disorder and Sexual content

lifeofchrstnlvly'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

…the past never stays where we try to keep it, stuffing it deep into the back of a closet and hoping to forget.

I feel bad for Chloe. She's surrounded by people who are either liars or immoral.

I did guess early on the plot twist, but I did not expect this to have many (minor) plot twists. Those little plot twists kept me engaged and made me skim this. However, I needed some help with this book.

Sometimes the transition of Chloe's thoughts from the present to the past (or vice versa) could be more apparent. It could have been more seamless. One minute we're reading about what Chloe was thinking about now/in the present, then the next minute, we're transported to her past, reading about what past Chloe was feeling at that moment. I don't know if this is intentional since Chloe is supposed to be an unreliable narrator, but it sometimes kept me confused. I've read enough thrillers to know there's a better way to do this.

Additionally, some parts are really repetitive. Since this is a first-person POV (Chloe's POV), we know her whereabouts and thoughts, so there is no need to recount what we read in the past chapters. We just read about 1 or 2 chapters about what happened over the weekend because we were "with her" as readers; there's no need to have 2 or 3 paragraphs of summary the chapter after.

It really bothered me how many times the words "flick," "flicker," "flicking," and "flicking" was mentioned (if you're curious: flick = 6, flicker = 13, flicking = 5, flickering = 9... that's a whole lot for a book less than 400 pages).

Overall, I did enjoy this book. I understand this is the author's debut novel. As she writes more books, her writing style will get better. It was okay, I'm glad I read it since it entertained me, but it had some problems. 2.5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Stalking, Blood, Death, and Mental illness

themoodreader's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Death, Sexual content, Drug use, Child death, Stalking, Addiction, and Murder

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Stalking, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Infidelity, and Sexual content

ravenpuff's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Alcohol, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Gun violence, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm

laurennicole98's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Child death, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Drug abuse, and Stalking

Minor: Infidelity, Self harm, and Miscarriage

jasmineslibraryy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

this book was a pretty cool mystery. 

my main issue is that the clues felt all over the place, and that the main character was kinda annoying. she should’ve listened to when she was encouraged to get help, but oh well, her PTSD gave me a good story to read. 

overall, i was interested the whole time i read this book. it was creepy, and mysterious, and just proves that history repeats itself and that solving a crime is tricky. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Murder, and Sexism

Moderate: Vomit, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Trafficking, Mental illness, and Self harm

a total of ten girls go missing in the story

one girl is believed to go missing, but is found.

constellation_library's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

 

Initially, I gave this book 3 stars. I liked it, but there were aspects of it that just didn’t make sense to me at first. Once I talked to my husband about it, I bumped that rating up to 4 stars. The main reason for my confusion was that I didn’t catch the overall motive of the killer during the present day. It seemed like the methodology used to pull our MC in again after so many years made little sense once the killer was revealed. Yet, once I sat down and considered everything, it made a lot of sense and was actually very well done. All the pieces fit together so well, and the motivations for everyone made sense (except for one key character, who I still don’t fully grasp the need for other than as a plot device to create drama). 

What I liked: 

The Pace – it was well written and engaging. The beginning was a bit slower, but since this book leaned more heavily on the “psychological” aspects of the psychological thriller, that was needed to adequately break down our MC’s mind and ability to differentiate reality from delusion. Our MC self-medicates with prescription drugs, usually followed by alcohol. This isn’t much of a spoiler since you see her doing this from the beginning of the story. This causes her to be an unreliable narrator, a trope I don’t LOVE, but one that makes sense for a psychological thriller. The speed ramps up as the pieces begin to fall into place for her, and I read the latter half of this in one sitting last night. 

The Atmosphere – this story is set in Louisiana, and as with most stories set in Louisiana, I ate it up. Having visited New Orleans a few years ago, I can vividly remember the sites, the smells, and the oppressive heat. Those senses are utilized well in this story, and I was truly immersed in it all as if I were there. 

The MC’s Mental Decline – while I didn’t particularly care for our MC or some of her choices throughout the story, she was believably traumatized, and it worked well for the plot to have her feel like she was losing her mind. 

The Twist – it made a lot of sense to me. In my line of work, I’ve seen almost the exact same scenario play out before. There wasn’t anything unbelievable about it to me, and the way that everything finally fell into place at the end, you could see the breadcrumbs laid out along the way. I knew from the beginning who the most likely perpetrator was, so I wasn’t surprised when the reveal happened. But I’m not a person who reads a thriller and feels the need to be completely surprised. Even if we reach an end I saw coming, I can enjoy it if the story was well-crafted along the way. 

What I disliked: 

The MC’s Inability to Use Her Brain – given that our MC has been traumatized, and therefore is extremely paranoid and closed-off, she makes some very poor decisions over the course of the story, putting herself in stupid positions, lying for no reason, and withholding information that would have prevented a lot of what occurs in the story. I recognize that, were it not for these choices, we wouldn’t even HAVE a story, but I just could not help but feel so incredibly aggravated by her in general. Especially when it comes to a scene toward the end involving the MC’s mother, where she did not hang around long enough to get a real answer, and instead jumped to conclusions that lead to a host of other issues. 

The Time Shifts – There are moments in the story where our MC has flashbacks of her past. I have no issue with this as a general rule, but it was at times hard to differentiate where the past ended and the present began. She blended them together, and it typically occurred during a conversation with the police in present day when she would, in the next paragraph, be recalling a conversation with police when she was a child. Then the next line would be dialogue happening in the present time that jarred her back into the moment. It was a stylistic choice to make you feel more in her head, but it was sort of confusing at times, and I had to go back and reread to make sure I was understanding what was happening. 

A Certain Character – My biggest gripe, and the main reason I can’t give this book 5 stars, is because one of the characters central to the story, for good or ill, just does not make logical sense to me. The reason for their involvement is so superficial, so glossed over and unnecessary, that I don’t know why they were included other than to be a red herring. And if being a plot device is the only reason, then I feel like it could have been done a bit differently, or, at the very least, that character’s reasoning for participating in everything could have been a bit more fleshed out. 

Overall, this book was very enjoyable and I would recommend it to other people who like a heavier dose of mind-fuck in their psychological thrillers. I’ve heard this author recently released another book where the MC has issues with sleep-walking (which is soooo creepy to me), so I may have to dive into that one next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Child death, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Infidelity, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Murder, and Self harm

jamiejanae_6's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Blood, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Grief, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders

pollyhall's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

 BEST THRILLER I HAVE READ IN YEARS. 

This is a fast-paced thriller. Excellent description of small-town Louisiana and childhood summers.
I actually flinched when the alligator poked its head above the water. 

I started reading this book and thought I figured it out by the third chapter. I couldn't figure out why the author would give away the bad guy up so early and continue to write for 354. I was only going to read the rest of the story so I could say I knew who the bad guy was all along. Well, Stacy Willingham got me good she showed me I had NO CLUE to who the bad guy was and no idea how this story ended. She got me hook, line and sinker. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Vomit, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt