Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Next Girl by Carla Kovach

15 reviews

st333phanie's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Stalking, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Torture, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content

Minor: Body shaming, Child abuse, and Animal cruelty

lifeofchrstnlvly's review

dark mysterious sad 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

2.0

This book is a straightforward procedural thriller. 

It took me some time to finish it due to a lack of compelling tension. Although the stakes were high with a life on the line, the plot revealed the victim's situation while the protagonist, DI Gina Harte, was still trying to solve the case. As a result, I, the reader, was merely waiting for the protagonist to catch up with what I already knew. The question was not 'what will happen?' but 'when and how will the villain be caught?' This aspect dulled the suspense and made me less inclined to pick up the book. 

However, DI Gina Harte, the protagonist, was a well-developed character. Even though her personal backstory didn't profoundly affect me, I could understand her because her character was thoroughly explored. 

I'm undecided about continuing with the series. I might consider reading the second book in the future, but if it follows the same format, I may not pursue the entire series.

Also, to be honest, Harte was a bit.. dumb for a DI. She actually didn't solve the case in this book. All the pieces just fell into place: she didn't find the victim, someone else did. She didn't take down the perpetrator. Someone else did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Blood, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, Rape, Death, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Sexual violence

Minor: Animal cruelty and Pregnancy

yvo_about_books's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.25

Finished reading: April 30th 2024

“The combination of thunder and seeing the helpless baby had dug up her memories. Memories she'd rather forget.”

I came across this series when I was browsing my kindle for titles to read to help complete my kindle freebies goal, and since I've been meaning to try Carla Kovach's writing for a while now I decided to give in. The Next Girl is the first book of a detective thriller series, and it starts on a heavy note with a kidnapping case as well as a focus on domestic abuse. It's not a bad read, but somehow there wasn't really anything that made this thriller stand out from other books in the genre either. I think this had a lot to do with the main character Gina, who I was unable to warm up to. She seemed too much like your stereotypical flawed detective with a troubled past, and the rest of the cast wasn't overly developed either. The many references to her past and psychological consequences in the present not only made her seem less competent as a detective, but also started to annoy me considerably. The fact that she was sleeping with her boss didn't really help either to be honest. The plot itself dragged in parts as well, and as a result it took me longer than expected to read The Next Girl . The case itself had a lot of potential and there were moments that were more suspenseful, but as a whole I felt that something was lacking. And while the final part was more engaging, it couldn't fully save this story for me. All in all it wasn't a bad read, but I don't think I will be continuing with this series... I still have too many other detective thriller series I want to start/continue instead.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Blood, Toxic relationship, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Dementia, Death, Murder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Grief, Stalking, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Rape

mandarose79's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Murder, and Emotional abuse

jul1a_pl's review

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

When reading I felt like it's another crime story which was supposed to be full if plot twists but turned out quite disappointing. The plot was in my opinion unbelievable - I could never imagine this happening in real life so I had issue sympathising with main characters. 

For me, the detective was a cliché policewoman - family problems, puts work first, always working, has some trauma what makes it hard for her to has a good relationship with her daughter etc. and her character wasn't too developed. I didn't care too much about what happens and had happened to her.

Apart from a few plot twists in the first few chapters, I wasn't really involved in the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Stalking, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Sexual violence and Rape

jewelzbooks44's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Hard to read certain parts. A good crime thirller. Definitely gives you intense feeling throughout story. Some characters could a had more history to them. Also after everything, more of the bonding of family. 4 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pregnancy, Confinement, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping

Minor: Suicide

alex1's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Physical abuse, Stalking, Rape, Body horror, Death, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, and Murder

shinararose's review

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

I fully admit this book took me a minute to get in to. There are a couple of reasons my first read of 2024 only gets 3 stars :( I had forgotten it was set in England so the slang was hard to read as a Canadian girly. The title doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Was Debbie the next girl? Or is it referring to Florence/isobel? The quote made more sense once you read the flash back. I wish we could’ve seen more of Jeff’s reaction to drowning Debbie but I liked how the fisherman saved her. 

I also really liked Gina’s character development. The author showed a lot of honesty in how she was just trying to make it through the day. Hannah though deserves a bit of a smack. Like I get you idolized him but how can you not see your mother’s feelings about it? Bit selfish of her. I hope they repair things in the next book. 

Not sure how I feel about the interoffice “situationship” but I think they have a great group of characters to follow through the novels. Curious to continue the series and see if they explore the others in more detail

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Stalking

Minor: Pregnancy

elliphant's review

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

The theme and storytelling were at times really dark and disturbing.

The pace, writing, and dialogue were a bit awkward and, at worst, repetitive and cringey.

I don’t know what the descriptions meant with “heart-stopping twist” cause there certainly wasn’t any.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Pregnancy, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Violence, Sexual violence, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Physical abuse

katieb94's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I got an email with a link to this book for free. I love a good crime novel so I snatched it up. I didn’t expect it to be set in the West Midlands (albeit a fictional town) which was great because I’ve not read a lot of detective stories set in the UK. 

It all starts with an abandoned baby which links to an old four year cold case. I really liked this link as it went back and forth between the police, the victim, and her family. It made the story feel much more real. 

I will admit, I felt some of the parts of the story were a little bit far fetched and seemed to be there just to pad out the story but on the whole I really enjoyed the crime and the way the police worked together to solve what happened and save the woman involved. 

The characters all had lives outside of the case and I liked to see what they did outside and how it affected them. Secrets are unveiled the more the story progressed which meant it felt more realistic. 

I’m definitely interested in reading more in this series and following DI Harte on more of her cases and hope to pick up more in the series soon.

4/5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse