Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - You're Invited

Read if: you want a whodunit with multiple povs, interested in Sri Lankan culture/representation, like unreliable/unlikable main characters, want a lighter mystery that doesn’t go too deep into some heavier themes, want to explore the complexities of female friendship.

Don’t Read If: you want a fast paced story(this is more of a slow burn), you easily get confused with a large cast of characters, if you’re sensitive to self harm, if you find most mysteries predictable.

Content Warnings

astridhawk's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

Really disappointing. Empty-headed completely unklikeaboe characters, and instead of a mystery it was more of a bait-and-switch by the author. Also, TONS of tw… just don’t expect an enjoyable mystery from this one.

Content Warnings

georgiagirl1315's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

alyssone's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

Content Warnings

sallysimply's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.5

It was a wild ride, and I was here for it!

Content Warnings

dhutton1997's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

For the first half of this book, I hated every single character especially Amaya. However, by the middle of it, I was hooked. So good and everything is wrapped up by the end and man will it blow your mind!

Content Warnings

delphine_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

funny mysterious relaxing tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is a strong 4 stars for me, a fun read with layers I didn’t expect and that just kept on coming. I was enraptured with the plot and really liked the writing. I was also lucky to be listening to the audiobook, and the narrators were incredible, I can’t give them enough praise.

The book goes back and forth between Amaya’s point of view of events over a few days, and the accounts of other characters who give their own perspective. It makes it really interesting and is a splendid set up for some really well engineered reveals and progression points.

And then there’s a third point of view that shifted my entire perspective on things and added so much context and was placed really smartly in the book. Absolutely delightful.

The morals of everybody involved are delightfully twisted and the book left me feeling like well- that was even more messed up than I thought. But in a good way. The layers of morality.

It was also a really fun projection into both Sri Lanka and the high society of that place. It really felt like I could place myself there, the world was really well brought to life.

My only gripe with the book- but it’s a pretty big gripe- is the laying it on thick about one of the characters. I think it could have been more subtle and the result of it was just a lot. I would have been sold just as effectively with less.

This is about Spencer: I was already down with hating him at the gold digging, the blackmail, and then EXTRA down at the abuse. Adding a layer of pedophilia, though it provided additional motive for Amaya, I thought was unneeded and just made him into a caricature of a villain. “Just add one more despicable thing just to be 100% sure”. Abhorrent, but just to sell us more this character hatred, which I was already sold to and now just felt queasy.

This is a bit sad as the book otherwise does a great job of depicting tense relationships, two-faced individuals, and

a truly splendid job at describing how abuse is insidious and can destroy how you used to be. I loved that the security agent simply believed Amaya about the abuse, or at least let her talk. It’s important.

.

Finally another gripe would be the little faux pas of implying

an addict’s son would be an addict too. It’s also an extra way to make us hate this character, I suppose, but not a great way. The fact that a character was delivering drugs to him was a good way to start hinting at Spencer’s facade being just that, but I wished it didn’t turn into “he was an addict the whole time, he’s a bad person who even does cocaine.” Again doing a little too much with Spencer, but with added insensitivity imo.

All in all I liked this book a great deal and couldn’t stop listening, I am delighted to have spent time with this, and picked up another book by this author. Read the trigger warnings REALLY carefully, because they’re no joke. But if you’re good to go, then I could not recommend it enough.

Content Warnings

More...