Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Small Game

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

antitheticaldreamgirl's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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twoesplease's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? No

4.5

A HARD listen, full of suffering and pain and confusion, but nonetheless gripping. Realistic people, set in the hardest situation possible. Would have loved a more fleshed out ending with closure.

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erinoconnor's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I read an advanced uncorrected proof copy - so I’m not sure if anything changed with publication, that being said - I really enjoyed the story. I wanted more and wish there was a more fleshed out ending, but I appreciate the mirror image of the beginning at the end. Some things seemed rushed and not fully answered - I want to hear EXACTLY what happened to Lenny and the crew, while I think it’s probably their last theory about money but STILL! - but I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

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alreads420's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated

3.0

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nicole_zx's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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allfawkesgiven's review

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book wasn’t quite what I was expecting, and I’m mostly glad. I initially read it via audiobook and there two things that drew me to it—the performer was Kristen Sieh (I liked what she did with Romantic Comedy) and the fact it seemed to be a fictionalized Survivor gone wrong. My attitude going in was something along the lines of steeling myself for campy writing and hoping that the story captures all of the absurdness of the mess that is Survivor/production. (I hate-watched some when I was ill and god is it absurd and terrible!) I also thought maybe it would go very Lord Of The Flies with full gruesome abandon. I would say it ended up being quite a bit more quiet, somber, and even reflective on humanity than I anticipated.
Most of the character development was around Mara, who felt like a very solitary sort of person. There was a lot of restraint in her, or some kind of distance I felt between her outward and her inner self. At time I felt almost ambivalent about her, and then there were others where what she was experiencing and realizing stirred some deeper feelings in me.
After reading it, I was not surprised to learn, after a quick skim of the author’s other titles, that the author has outdoor “survival” experience. The detailing of daily life felt personally lived. I liked that

it got dark without the main characters going full Lord of the Flies with cannibalism and such.

The story was scary but not because it was relying on the same overplayed individualism that seem to drive many stories where people have to do dark stuff to survive. One thing that kept me reading was hoping we’d learn what happened to strand the castaways there.

I found it dissatisfying that we don’t learn what happened to Lenny and the crew!!! Why did they disappear?I guess we’re supposed to assume that Ashley’s theory was correct? Give us, like, one sentence when we heard there were lawsuits at the very end! It ended and I felt unresolved. I wanted that little thrill of knowing. It seems like a lot of people felt the same, from perusing the reviews.

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joeyleigh14's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? Yes

I really liked this book, but it really messed me up. It was very well written, and the author is clearly knowledgeable about survival situations, which was interesting and entertaining to read. The main character has some flaws, and the flaws play into the plot in a really interesting and compelling way. I'd listened to Blair Braverman's episodes of You're Wrong About, and the rugby team one specifically is one I listen to when I'm very depressive. I thought this book would give me a little more will to life, and it actually did the opposite. I would recommend reading slowly. I liked the way her childhood came to the surface a little later in the book, how we discover the protagonist's backstory slowly. I didn't expect this to be as gay as it was, and I was so happy to see that.

SPOILERS

The reasoning of why they were left behind really messed me up for a while. I thought the capitalism critiques were fascinating, and extremely well done while also being light-handed. The death was heartbreaking. A little bit predictable, but in a way that (for me) made a satisfying conclusion. I would've liked a little more resolution (even if only internally in Mara's mind) or minor characters, like Tom and James and I wanted to see Lenny go to jail. A fun sequel would be Lenny getting murdered or on trial. I thought the end was a tiny bit rushed, but I think I did like it, i just wanted to read them actually finding civilization again. I assume the omission of this was a purposeful decision, but as a reader it was sad. I feel like I'd "worked" hard for some happy stuff at the end and I didn't get it. But I was very very happy that the romance panned out and I enjoyed the conflict of that.

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