Reviews

Alone by Barbara De Smedt

chelsea_mh's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

roachquesadilla's review

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

The acknowledgement!!! I almost didn’t read it but I’m so glad I did. Holy crap!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

j__tram's review

Plays on incel tropes and leans into trauma porn, with flat characters I don’t care enough about.

kbailarina's review against another edition

4.0

My first spooky read of 2023! I am such a nerd for crime /thriller fiction, the fact that this was laced with pyschological motives but the cherry on top.

This book follows Julie Meskins and her boyfriend Tom (or love interest.. the juries still out), as they deal with trying to build a ,sometimes what feels, forced life together all the while juggling the pyschological threats of a stalker. This book was exceptionally written in different years , interchanging between characters and even times, starting from nearly a decade apart until eventually all meet in the same time, same place at the end. The chapters were short and snippy and you were given information bites of different events that all consolidated into a major twist at the end.

There are a few storylines that start throughout the story that I feel will be explored in future books, I have so many questions and already cannot wait to read the next one! Thank you Barbara for having this excellent novel translated to English so we can all enjoy the story! I'd also like to mention the mental health theme throughout the book as I feel you addressed multiple pyschological issues in the one book, which highlights these very real life topics that should absolutely be highlighted. Well done!

trou6le's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

2.75

paracosm's review

This was so boring. Not a single character is interesting. The plot takes forever to get going. I just don't care what happens next.

ruminant's review

challenging dark sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content, Vomit, Medical content, Abortion, and Fire/Fire injury

rainbowfairie's review

challenging dark emotional 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

I read this book in about two days because I wanted to see what happened. It does a good job of keeping you on your toes and interested. I enjoyed the writing and dialogue. There was strong character development. I enjoyed that the book jumped between past and present timeline to give perspective and background. That being said, I feel the ending was rather abrupt compared to the pace of the rest of the book. The chapters toward the end when

the husband is grieving are very choppy and disjointed, which I believe was the author’s way of showing how dissociated and depressed he was.

I was most disappointed by the way the book ended.

Call me a romantic but I wanted some form of resolution to this sad ending. Ending with the antagonist stalking the daughter made me angry lol. I will say, I thought it was a nice twist of fate that the author wrote in the car accident and the fire to have been connected and that Oscar and Julie were perhaps destined to play out this tragedy as the Fates had irreversibly woven the strands of Oscar and Julie’s lives together in that night.

The abrupt ending made me immediately want to read the next book, which appears to only be available in Dutch. If it releases in English I am unsure if I will read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

kcsbookcorner's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.75

laurareads_bcn's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

Did not expect the end. The story was great, and fast enough to not get bored.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol