Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

80 reviews

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: Chronic illness, Death, and Murder

kitaface'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, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual assault

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

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

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

Moderate: Alcoholism and Suicide

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 abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, and Murder

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

Minor: Gun violence, Pedophilia, Suicide, Grief, 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: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content and Violence

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

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

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

Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, and Suicide

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

Moderate: Body shaming and Sexual assault

marik0n's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

I just finished reading Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney and I had the urge to immediately start re reading it!

Alice Feeney is surely the queen of dualpovs and plottwists.

Even though I was really invested in this story, I didn't like it as much as her other books.

Don't get me wrong, it was still a masterpiece, but something spoiled it for me (the ending). 

All in all it was a great read, by a great writer and I look forward to reading more of her stories.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Sexual content

cbthebooktrotter's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent