Reviews tagging 'Murder'

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

233 reviews

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Mental illness, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual content

notlikethebeer'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I am, openly, not a fan of books that aren't set firmly in The Real World. Even magical realism can get a bit too fantastical for me. And yet, every now and again, a book comes along and breaks that exception. This was one of them. A Lesson in Vengeance is dark and enticing and engrossing. It gave me Moira Fowley-Doyle vibes in a lot of ways, as well as Secret History vibes at times too - it definitely fits firmly into dark academia. And yet it went far darker than either of those, often quite unsettlingly so. Despite the various twisted parts, I really enjoyed getting to know each of the characters, and there was a great sense of unreliability and conflict as to who could be trusted and who couldn't - along with what could be trusted, and what couldn't. I personally loved the ending too, I can see why others might not, but I thought it was perfect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Death, and Grief

vagrantheather's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A spooky dark academia with an unreliable narrator. Lots of fun. I do think the characters are much too well read for teenagers - they all speak academia fluently and have fixed thoughts on concepts and authors unknown outside of the realm of academic literature - would have worked better for me if they were in university looking forward to Masters programs. In general they just aren't at all young acting. And the way all of the adults in the background tacitly permit smoking, drinking, and a total lack of supervision, seems to me more like college than a pricey boarding school full of academically inclined socialites.

But those gripes are minor and in general I loved the mood, setting, writing, moral flexibility, and disconnection from reality. It was a lot of fun to read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Animal death, Abandonment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Minor: Cursing, Outing, Sexual content, Gun violence, and Drug use

thelibraryofalexandra's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

fionamatilda's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Death, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

venti's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

ellis <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Sexual content

Minor: Suicide, Eating disorder, Vomit, and Self harm

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, Sexual content, Abandonment, Ableism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Bullying, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

Minor: Lesbophobia, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Racism, and Transphobia

cosmo_naut's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

First off: I am not a big mystery/thriller reader. It's not really my thing, so this will colour my preception of the book.
I read this book in one night, in the midst of exam season, because I just had to know that I was right with my predictions and guesses. I liked it in general and I had a good time reading it.
I don't think the prose will be to everyone's taste. It's supposed to be dark academia, so the book is littered with literary references that occasionally are rewarding to understand, but often seem very piled on. I did appreciate some of the meta-level a few of those discussions had. The plot was quite predictable (even for a newbie like me) and I could guess the plot twist pretty early on. I didn't really mind the tropy-ness of the book but I've seen some other reviewers complain about it. The ending seemed really rushed which was a bit disappointing because the build up of the tension was really good. I would have loved to spend more time on the aftermath of everything that happened. Instead, it feels like it was brushed off. The main character is 18 and this book being a mystery and Young Adult, I didn't mind her making a couple of stupid decisions - and in the grand scheme of things her decisions did make sense. The side characters sadly fell a bit flat. If the book had been 50, or even 100, pages longer, I think there would be the space to flesh out these characters as well as the ending more.
Whatever the technical issues with the book may be: I had a good time reading it. I would definitely recommend checking the content warnings before reading it - there's some pretty heavy things in here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Murder

ettegoom'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book did everything that Plain Bad Heroines completely failed to achieve.  The characters and their means of dealing with the situations in which they found themselves were sufficiently mysterious and stressful to keep me engaged.  The twist wasn't unexpected, but was still enjoyable, and the conflict between the main character's own delusions and anxieties and the reality of the situation was quite engaging. 
I did find Felicity a little annoying at times, but in the main, I enjoyed the book and wanted the best for her. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Gaslighting

Moderate: Murder, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Death, Child abuse, and Alcohol

rorykluciarova'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Blood, Death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content