Reviews with content warning for Violence - Daisy Darker

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

61 reviews

rozhin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.25

Alice Feeney always writes the most twisted endings.
But this one was just sad.
I'm so disappointed!
And I know my opinion might not be the right one on people's eyes, but this was supposed to be a thriller.... so why finish it like thattt and ruin everything :(

And I'll leave it at that.

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growintogardens's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.5

Feeney is good at making a creepy atmosphere, and I could visualize the house really well. I didn't love the twist.

It was something I thought about early, but dismissed it. I honestly think this would have been more enjoyable if she had survived instead of becoming a ghost, and lost the memory of the accident. It would have been more creepy and crazy imo, for them to still kill the family members because of Daisy's abuse, which is what I thought before the ghost reveal.

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bubblegirl858's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

For my 2023 rating system I gave this book 4 stars. This book was an amazing read. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. I seriously enjoyed trying to figure out what was going on the entire book.

Once I got to the end of the book, I immediately restarted it and tried to make sense of the things that my brain had just auto filled with any family interactions with Daisy. I was literally kicking myself for just not noticing how none of the family interacted with her. I honestly did not see the ending twist at all, and it made the book so much more exciting once everything fell into place in the big "Clue" game they were living. The only reason this book didn't get 5 stars is because of the characters. Some of them were so irredeemable that it made me despise any scene with them and I just couldn't get over it, even if they got their karma. The siblings just causally getting rid of Daisy like that and the parents covering it up? Absolutely deserved everything that happened to them. Amazing writing on Alice Freeney's part, but I just couldn't get over it personally.

Overall, a great read and I would definitely go back and read again.

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fraise's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.25

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ambersbakesandbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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sarahmae531's review against another edition

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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

4.25

This book was a rollercoaster ride. There were times I couldn’t put it down and other times I couldn’t get myself to pick it up.
The last maybe third of the book flew by for me. I had a few predictions on what the twist would be and I didn’t fully figure it out, which is always nice.
It loses a few points for me just because I’m not a big fan of what the final twist was in books

(i.e. a character being a ghost but somehow one special person can see them)

but I thought that for the “trope” (if you can really call it that), it was well executed, well explained, and kept me on the edge of my seat towards the end.

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savvylit's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

Daisy Darker is a tough book to rate, honestly. As a thriller, it's quite entertaining and does a good job of maintaining suspense. The conclusion and reveal genuinely surprised me! I had guessed the murderer but not the circumstances. If you enjoy fast-paced mysteries, you'll probably enjoy this! The mystery itself is a four-star idea & execution.

Though I did appreciate the suspense and homages to Agatha Christie, the actual quality of writing in Daisy Darker is not great. To the point where it frequently bothered me as a reader. I rolled my eyes at many narrative decisions. When describing Daisy's family or her past, every paragraph is absolutely LOADED with similes and metaphors. This is not a direct quote but will give you an idea of what I mean: "if families are a tapestry, ours was frayed beyond repair." The first several chapters include sentences like that multiple times within single paragraphs. It's incredibly heavy-handed. We get it! The Darker family is deeply dysfunctional.

Furthermore, the chapters tend to conclude with sentences that serve as ridiculously transparent attempts at cliffhangers: "and that was a night I'll never forget" or "my sisters' relationship was never the same again." Almost every chapter ended that way and it was so unnecessary. The cliffhanger-esque details become obvious later anyway! Again with heavy-handed narration. Just tell the story.

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