Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier

4 reviews

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

4.0

 Finished reading: July 24th 2023

"While you can reinvent yourself, you can't outrun yourself. The common denominator in all the terrible things that have happend to you is you. Everywhere you go, there you are."

I loved Jar Of Hearts back when I read it in 2019, and I'm still not sure why it has taken me this long to pick up another of her titles. Especially since I've also had her previous psychological thriller on my TBR since it was published in 2020... Things We Do In The Dark won out in the end; mostly because the premise of this story intrigued me more. And I can definitely understand why it has been receiving so much love now! Things We Do In The Dark has only reconfirmed the fact that I highly enjoy the way Jennifer Hillier writes her stories. I wasn't expecting the two different POVs, because I was already so invested in Paris' story and the death of her rich husband. BUT. I loved what Drew's POV added to the plot, and I always have a weak spot for a podcast angle in a story (although the podcast itself only played a minor role). The building up of the plot is very well done, with the different parts complementing each other and adding more suspense. The dive into the past of main character Paris gets darker and darker as you continue reading, and what might seem to be a fairly simple murder case in the present turns out to be so much more... There are a lot of twists and secrets to unravel, and I really enjoyed how everything was woven together. A little warning: Things We Do In The Dark was a lot darker and twisted than expected, and it features topics including child abuse, pedophilia, suicide and violence. That said, the plot itself was well developed and the writing itself brought everything together. I did guess one of the final big twists, but as a whole Things We Do In The Dark was a very satisfying thriller. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Trafficking, Addiction, Grief, Incest, Racism, Violence, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Classism, Cursing, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

micaelamariem's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.0

We all know by now I’m not the biggest thriller fan but I have actually liked a few in the past year! This, unfortunately, was not it. The main thing was I found it so predictable—and I’m normally never right about these things whereas here I called all the twists. Plus there is a lot of SA in the book which I suppose added to it, but it started to get too detailed for me and could be very triggering for other readers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Rape, Blood, Infidelity, Violence, Abandonment, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Murder, Sexual assault, Death, Racism, Grief, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, and Suicide attempt

haleysversion's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Addiction, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Violence

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This is my first book by Jennifer Hillier and unfortunately it wasn’t a win for me. I really enjoyed the first quarter of the story from Paris Peralta’s perspective as she’s trying to navigate the criminal justice system after the suspicious death of her much older husband. I found this part intriguing and mysterious, but once it transitioned to the second part where the focus was on Drew, I just did not feel engaged with the story. I found Drew’s judgmental and slut-shaming attitude really through me off.

And just a heads up, there’s a huge focus on detailed child abuse and trauma, which I was not expecting from this book, and I probably wouldn’t have picked this one up if I had known that. As well, the mystery seemed to have just been figured out about halfway through, and then just when the tension started rising again, everything just sort of resolved itself, so it just left me feeling like everything wrapped up way too quickly, which was unsatisfying. 

I did enjoy Hillier’s writing style though and I’d definitely still be willing to check out more by this author—if you’ve read anything else by her, let me know another of hers that I should pick up.

Thanks St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books & Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Rape, Self harm, Murder, Classism, Incest, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcohol and Drug use