Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - The Block Party

Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Block Party by Jamie Day

21 reviews

cath518's review

medium-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

3.5

The book starts out and it’s Memorial Day, present time. It’s the annual block party on Alton Road and everyone is enjoying themselves until someone gets murdered.

We then go back one year to the last block party and meet the neighbors and learn all about betrayal, rivalries and lies leading up to the murder.

Alex, Nick and Lettie are the Foxes and they host the block party. Emily and Ken are the Adairs and they have two boys, one of which is Dylan. Emily is Alex’s sister. Willow and Evan are the Thompsons and they have a daughter Riley. Riley and Lettie were best friends when they were younger but are no longer friends. Dylan is dating Riley.

Brooke Bailey is a widow who may or may not have pushed her husband off a cruise ship.

The new neighbors are Samir, Mandy and Jay Kumar. Samir appears to be very controlling on Mandy and doesn’t encourage interaction with the neighbors.

The story is told by Alex and Lettie. While there are a lot of characters, it is easy to keep track of them all.

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foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-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

3.75

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brandilovesbooks's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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chellebell048's review

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emotional mysterious 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

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serene216's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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kathrynclaire's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

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wanderonwards's review

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Thank you to Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press for sending me an ARC of this title. I received this copy for free and this review contains my honest opinions.

The Block Party is a domestic thriller that takes place over the course of a year in a fictional affluent suburban neighborhood. The novel is broken up into seasons, which was a good thing: the passage of time within each section was difficult for me to follow, with some chapters skipping months ahead without any indication and I needed those breaks to reorientate myself.

This isn’t my usual genre, but I did enjoy the writing style. However, I think this would have been a more successful read if it hadn’t been limited to only two POVs (plus the occasional online community board gossip). I think the entire plot would have benefited from rotating POVs throughout all the characters, especially when I was more interested in characters other than the two POVs. Thank you again to the publisher for sending me a free ARC.

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