Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Daisy Darker

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Daisy Darker, by Alice Feeney

20 reviews

savvylit's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

Daisy Darker is a tough book to rate, honestly. As a thriller, it's quite entertaining and does a good job of maintaining suspense. The conclusion and reveal genuinely surprised me! I had guessed the murderer but not the circumstances. If you enjoy fast-paced mysteries, you'll probably enjoy this! The mystery itself is a four-star idea & execution.

Though I did appreciate the suspense and homages to Agatha Christie, the actual quality of writing in Daisy Darker is not great. To the point where it frequently bothered me as a reader. I rolled my eyes at many narrative decisions. When describing Daisy's family or her past, every paragraph is absolutely LOADED with similes and metaphors. This is not a direct quote but will give you an idea of what I mean: "if families are a tapestry, ours was frayed beyond repair." The first several chapters include sentences like that multiple times within single paragraphs. It's incredibly heavy-handed. We get it! The Darker family is deeply dysfunctional.

Furthermore, the chapters tend to conclude with sentences that serve as ridiculously transparent attempts at cliffhangers: "and that was a night I'll never forget" or "my sisters' relationship was never the same again." Almost every chapter ended that way and it was so unnecessary. The cliffhanger-esque details become obvious later anyway! Again with heavy-handed narration. Just tell the story.

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cheerful_bursts's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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amplawrence's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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jennyoli96's review

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challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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phantasmaboo's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Overall, I very much enjoyed Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney. The only issue I had was with the pacing. If the author intended for the primary twist of the story to be shocking, she spent too much time in the middle of the book laying out breadcrumbs for it to come as a surprise, and it weighed the book down. That being said, I didn't guess the ending completely and I thought the book was surprisingly emotional and I felt myself fighting back tears. I think this book is a strong 3.5 and definitely worth a read!

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