Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf

11 reviews

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Extremely predictable from the start, you know exactly what you’re going to get and what happens as soon as enough if set up. The story is extremely simple but it does scratch a certain itch in the fall/winter. Overall not bad! A good in between read for when you don’t really wanna dive into too much

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Confinement, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Gore, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Child death, Violence, Vomit, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Blood, Torture, Death, Kidnapping, Grief, and Excrement

nporter5's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I’m in awe of this book. ACAB, always, but 5/5 read. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Pregnancy, Death, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Murder, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Rape

emeraldsanto's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, and Alcoholism

jkarki's review against another edition

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Car accident, Blood, Sexual assault, Rape, Pedophilia, Murder, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Death, Confinement, Child death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Alcohol, Torture, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty, Self harm, and Vomit

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark 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? No

4.5

This story is split into three timelines: The summer of 2000 when a violent crime was committed at the farmhouse, an unknown time in which a mother and young girl are held captive, and present day in which our protagonist, Wylie, a true crime writer who is staying at the farmhouse to finish writing her book is being snowed in and finds a little boy freezing to death outside.

At times, this story feels like three books in one as each storyline slowly unfolds and we try to make predictions and decipher how they're connected. The characters are interesting and it's fun trying to predict their motivations.

The setting adds a lot of atmosphere to the story, especially in the present day/winter scenes. The cold, dark, white out conditions add so much claustrophobia. There were a few scenes in which I was genuinely terrified for our main characters.

My favorite thing about this book was seeing how the different characters reacted to the situations they found themselves in. It felt believable.
One of my least favourite things was the end reveal - the reveal itself was fine, but I think it would have been more impactful if the motivations of the antagonist were a little more defined.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys slow burn crime/thrillers and dark "whodunnits". 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Gun violence, Blood, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Violence, Car accident, Sexism, Sexual assault, Confinement, Death, Pregnancy, Rape, Stalking, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Kidnapping

Minor: Abortion, Child abuse, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Fire/Fire injury

chooper454's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Murder, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Child death, and Car accident

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Vomit, Terminal illness, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cancer

babyjay's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

The suspense of this book was pretty intense for me, and I won’t lie, I seriously considered turning on a night light! I’m pretty wimpy but the story had enough of a hook to keep me engaged. It’s a good book and if you like crime/suspense novels pick it up! I won’t go into plot details, just wanted to give my two cents on why this isn’t a 5 star for me. 

It should be. The characters are complex and realistic even in extraordinary situations. However, the snippets told from law enforcement perspective are just a little too hero worship-y for me. The stereotypical badass female from headquarters with an eagle eye and a soft touch for witnesses, the rogue cop with his own rules who will stop at nothing to chase a lead, the good hearted sherif that just really *knows* these people. 

Not only is it boring but dangerous! Telling stories where cops who terrorize to get information are doing the “wrong thing for the right reasons” glamorizes the abusive system that kills and brutalizes just because they can. The author also leans heavily on the self destructive alcoholic war veteran who creeps everyone out. The man has severe PTSD that goes untreated along with a difficult and painful life. Writing him into a story in such an unforgiving way and continuing to abuse his character throughout the book is gross. Vets have enough trouble as it is, no need to perpetuate the stereotypes of them being violent, dangerous, and unstable. 

The chapters in this book that include the aforementioned BS are short and infrequent, get swollowed up by the actual action of the story, and generally have very little to do with the plot. If you can ignore the filler it’s worth a read. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Torture, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Car accident, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Rape, Terminal illness, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, and Physical abuse

wonderfulxwonderful's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Vomit, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Murder, and Physical abuse

Minor: Car accident, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Rape, and Alcohol

whatathymeitwas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

Whew! I just read this in two evenings and I'm surprised I managed to put it down in the middle for even the amount of time I did. It kept me up reading until 5am last night.

I'm my opinion, this is very will written. I don't run into that many books that make me feel like I'm a string being slowly wound up at an ever-increasing speed and intensity, but this one did. I literally felt my heart rate go up during certain scenes. For an author to actually physically affect me, I'm impressed.

I won't get into the plot or anything that might be a spoiler, but this story was just aces. I had no idea who the fingers were going to eventually end up pointed at, and most of my guesses ended up being wrong. It took me til the last quarter to even figure out all the other perspectives and how they tied together. Provided, I'm not always exceptionally good at figuring out the mystery, but this one especially had me mind boggled.

This would be a great pick for anyone who enjoys extremely suspenseful suspense novels, and it would probably work exceptionally well as a winter read— in the dark, when it's snowing and chilled outside. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Animal death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Drug use, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Cancer

_savannahreads_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Violence, Murder, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Grief, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Death of parent, Death, Gun violence, and Fire/Fire injury