Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

72 reviews

selene_nyxly's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-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

5.0

I devoured this book! Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down. At first, I was annoyed by the narrator and main character, Daisy. Once I got more into the flow of the story, I appreciated the way her side tangents and story retellings helped me understand the characters better.

Having read “And Then There Were None”, I guessed that Nana was still alive. However, I was so stunned when the paranormal aspect was revealed. To look back at previous sections of the book and realize that the clues were there was so frustratingly satisfying

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Murder, Terminal illness, Death, Blood, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Car accident

locust1266's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This book took my heart and cut it to many pieces. I really liked the book and although I kind of guessed the plot twist I was still shocked . I also really really loved daisy's character . 


<Spoiler>
I cried when we learned that they murdered her . I think a big part of why I loved this book as much as I did was because of daisy like I wanted her to get her happy ending so bad. I do think this book has a lot of useless info tho and although most of the plot threads were cleard up there are  still some things I'm iffy Abt . Anyway I loved this book at first I was annoyed at daisy's nativity and that she was so inactive? But now that I know the whole plot twist it makes sense to me .

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual assault, and Bullying

Moderate: Chronic illness

Minor: Alcoholism and Animal cruelty

clrouse's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Chronic illness, and Murder

kleinekita's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I'm always annoyed when a mystery constantly brings up "what happened that night" through the whole book. Obviously a mystery is going to hold back information, but it's obnoxious to repeatedly refer to "the incident that changed everything". 

Especially when in this case it honestly could have said that Daisy was dead from the start! She could have still been a ghost worried about her family being murdered with very little changes to the story. Though tbh I was not thrilled by the supernatural twist, so 🤷🏻

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault and Adult/minor relationship

zalouis's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Car accident, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicide, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Medical content, Abandonment, Addiction, Medical trauma, Bullying, and Grief

theimposter's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide and Alcoholism

growintogardens's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident, Death, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Alcoholism, Bullying, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence, Grief, Suicide, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy

bubblegirl858's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Violence and Sexual content

Minor: Chronic illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, and Pregnancy

fraise'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Bullying, Murder, Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Blood, Car accident, Chronic illness, and Death of parent

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Medical content, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Suicide, Sexual content, and Animal death

savvylit's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Medical content, Violence, Child death, Medical trauma, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Sexual assault and Body shaming