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A review by vicktorea
In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
ya'll are some straight up LIARS
this wasn't good wtf?? what was good about it??? this was a character-driven novel and the majority of characters were pieces of shit. it's just (mostly) unlikeable white people thinking they deserve everything and more and taking the most lengths to get it. the main character is the biggest "poor me / pick me" status chasing bitch ever and then i feel like the author threw in some bad things that happened to her to make the reader sympathize with her a bit. The things that happened to her were fucked up but that doesn't excuse the fact that she's very shitty and deadass didn't deserve anything good in the end. bad people do not deserve good things and this book basically just said "actually they do 🥰".
Like these were grown adults behaving in the way that they did and it made no sense; it might have been more believable as a YA (maybe even NA) novel, but not adult. anyone obsessed with popularity at that age is incredibly pathetic and should seek therapy. Which leads to my next point; I'm really sick of "thrillers" being propelled by (narcissistic) characters who are in desperate need of therapy - the cop out is just cheap and insulting at this point.
the murder mystery was what kept me from DNFing this and the pacing and dual timelines were great so it's not that the author sucks, they just suck at writing decent characters because even though they aren't supposed to be likable a good writer can have me liking who I'm not supposed to but these were just superficial, surface-level people with mommy&daddy issues - go get yourselves therapy and stop believing you deserve everything handed to you (even if you "worked so hard for it" 🙄) life doesn't work that way.
fuck the EH7; Caro, Frankie, Jack (& even Coop) deserved better.
listened to the audio via Hoopla - decent narration.
this wasn't good wtf?? what was good about it??? this was a character-driven novel and the majority of characters were pieces of shit. it's just (mostly) unlikeable white people thinking they deserve everything and more and taking the most lengths to get it. the main character is the biggest "poor me / pick me" status chasing bitch ever and then i feel like the author threw in some bad things that happened to her to make the reader sympathize with her a bit. The things that happened to her were fucked up but that doesn't excuse the fact that she's very shitty and deadass didn't deserve anything good in the end. bad people do not deserve good things and this book basically just said "actually they do 🥰".
Like these were grown adults behaving in the way that they did and it made no sense; it might have been more believable as a YA (maybe even NA) novel, but not adult. anyone obsessed with popularity at that age is incredibly pathetic and should seek therapy. Which leads to my next point; I'm really sick of "thrillers" being propelled by (narcissistic) characters who are in desperate need of therapy - the cop out is just cheap and insulting at this point.
the murder mystery was what kept me from DNFing this and the pacing and dual timelines were great so it's not that the author sucks, they just suck at writing decent characters because even though they aren't supposed to be likable a good writer can have me liking who I'm not supposed to but these were just superficial, surface-level people with mommy&daddy issues - go get yourselves therapy and stop believing you deserve everything handed to you (even if you "worked so hard for it" 🙄) life doesn't work that way.
fuck the EH7; Caro, Frankie, Jack (& even Coop) deserved better.
listened to the audio via Hoopla - decent narration.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Misogyny, Death of parent
Minor: Homophobia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt