Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

9 reviews

mrsmishler's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Incest

charlizzzard_'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? No

4.5

A book that had me desperate to work out the mystery within!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

This book got so confusing. Almost like Ms. Ware wrote herself into a corner, and then had to get really creative to make everything kind of work out. Also, I feel like the whole plot point about

Hal owing a bunch of money to the creepy guy

was just not really resolved? Truly, it's my own fault for continuing to read books that I'm not really into haha

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Blood, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

cpratreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I enjoyed this book, a solid Ware novel. I did wish that the ending was a little more dramatic, as it felt a little underwhelming compared to the setting. An easy vacation read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence

gracescanlon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

This was an intriguing novel, with lovable characters and multiple successful red herrings. I did see some of the twists coming, but I wasn’t always entirely correct about the particulars. That kind of twist - where I can guess that there is one, and can guess maybe something or things about it, but other things I didn’t expect are revealed later - is my favorite. It’s the best of both worlds: I get some of the satisfaction of guessing correctly, but also enjoy the surprises the author had in store for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Alcohol

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

Out of the 3 Ruth Ware books I’ve read, this is easily my favorite and also her most like-able characters so far. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Violence, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Infidelity, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Alcohol, and Classism

ashleycmms's review against another edition

2.75

Anyone who knows me and my reading tastes knows I’m a super for family drama, dynamics, and relationships. I always enjoy it no matter if it’s possible, healthy, traumatic, fictional, or non-fiction. However, I went into this expecting a thriller/horror and figured out the antagonist 25% in. By 50% I figured out the plot twist. I read and watch a lot of horror/thriller content so it’s not unusable for me to be able to figure out what’s going to happen before I get there. However, what was a real let down for me was the sheer lack of concrete reasons as to WHY these things even came to happen. This is a story that relies heavily on backstory while simultaneously being incredibly vague about the events of the past. We get a few diary entries of the past that were very intriguing, but they often caused me to wonder more about what happened during that time. Especially to the main villain of this story. We get no reasoning, which I guess would be fine if the story was “some people are just evil” but there’s constant wording that “over time,” “something happened,” and “before and after.” So WHAT…. WHAT IS IT THAT HAPPENED?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse and Blood

Minor: Incest, Infidelity, and Alcohol

marlireads's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

A supersolid mystery thriller by Ms Ware. The atmosphere was amazing, I love Ruth Ware's writing and the symbolism that ties this entire thing together was *chef's kiss*! This book actually made me more interested in Tarot. 

I did, however, guessed a couple of the plot twists/revelations that happen toward the end pretty early on. And I feel like there were some holes in some characters' motivation in line with the plot, and I feel like it didn't give ALL the answers.

Because what was Ezra's motivation to letting Hal turn back home and going home himself when there was still a chance that she was going to figure everything out. And also, the wire thing... That happened before that, so that clearly means that he planned on killing her before he actually tried to. Why second guess? Because if this was the plan all along, he couldn't have planned the weather. He couldn't have known that! And then, why not kill her on that road trip?

Again, very solid. The only other one that I've read by the author is The Turn of the Key and that one was great as well, so... I see more Ruth Ware books in my future!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Murder, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

abcahill1218's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Murder