Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - All the Dangerous Things

Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham

42 reviews

clo_l's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this book.
I respect it for the fact that I am a mother to a baby, who struggles with postpartum depression & strongly feels that postpartum mental health should be talked about it more. I appreciate the struggles of motherhood being talking about, seen from both the viewpoints of Izzy & her mother.
This book was slow. So incredibly slow. I wanted to give up so many times. It felt boring, all these details and flashbacks and info that just drug on & on & on. It didn’t start getting good until the last like 70 pages? If it wasn’t for the sheer fact that I needed to know what happened to her son and that I hate not finishing books, I wouldn’t stopped reading like halfway through.
I’m used to books taking the first half slow, to build up and the last half getting intense but I feel like this book never truly reached that part. I didn’t predict what happened, which is good but it still didn’t have that shock effect.
Idk. I really really really wanted to love this book. To love Izzy. To connect deeper. But I just didn’t.

Content Warnings

minimicropup's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

Watchful, inquisitive, layered.

We follow our MC trying to find out what happened to their child, who was kidnapped one night from their crib. We see how it affects their health, relationships, and how they navigate sharing the case under the judgemental eye of true crime consumers. We also get their memories from when they were a child and what happened to their little sister, who they were close to.

🇺🇸 Set in Savannah, Georgia, USA

🎧 Narration was enjoyable to listen to and easy to follow. The narrator did well with the "then" chapters for little kid voices, and being expressive without it sounding overdone or cheesy.

🐺🐕 Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags:

👌 Realistic characters and real consequences. All the characters are morally grey. Most are neither fully evil nor fully good. We get hints into their backgrounds and rationale for selfish actions. Lies snowball into more major situations. There are misogynistic actions but the reasons for it aren't just based on "all men are jerks".

👍The unhinged/unreliable-ness was well done. I swayed back and forth for most of the book wondering if Ben is a total jerk and that's why Isabel is doubting herself. Or is he kind of the victim and Isabel is the troublesome person causing her own misfortune?

👍 I liked the narrative and how there was a lot happening, but not in an overwhelming way. We get switches between the past when Isabel is 8 years old, and moments from before she had her son, how she met Ben, through to what happened and how things are going now. It flowed well for me without being fragmented or disconnecting. Single first person narration for the audio definitely helps.

👍 I liked the portrayal of what it's like to be on the other side of the true crime entertainment industry and how it can be helpful and harmful for victims families.

👍 Clues as to what happened are gradually unravelled in a natural way, parallel with suspense created from the plot development and situations Isabel gets in to. Even though some may be able to figure it out with successive reveals, there are several outcomes possible. The ending had some slightly convenient moments but didn't ruin it for me.

Mood Reading Match Up:

Unreliable narrator because of exhaustion, lack of sleep
Clues, puzzling, red herrings about who did it and what happened
True crime missing child plot with commentary about the true crime genre and what it's like to be on the other side of the stories
Podcaster elements (navigating being on a podcast)

Content Heads-Up: Infidelity (suspected, emotional affairs). Missing child. Sleep disorders (sleepwalking, insomnia, passing out). Postpartum psychosis. Emotional abuse (withdrawing affection, gaslighting). Lying about birth control. Miscarriage (memories, discussed). Death of a child. Misogyny (medical, mental health).

Format: Audible

Content Warnings