Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Daisy Darker, by Alice Feeney

23 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Medical content, Violence, Child death, Medical trauma, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Sexual assault and Body shaming

penandpaper's review against another edition

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

An amazing book! At times, the build up and prose was a bit repetitive, but that’s a common problem with mysteries. This is a book about living in the past and needing to accept it to move on, and it’s very well done. The plot twist could be decisive (I first hated it, then loved it, then had lingering questions), but the book does a good job of balancing comfortable nostalgia with suspense and mystery. I think this is a book you’ll either love or hate from the ending.

Spoiler

I think the mechanics of the final twist could have been done better. Like, why does she stick around but not her relatives? Does the book set her free? What happens to Trixie? As much as I appreciate the sudden twist and the tie in to the beginning, I wish we had more information 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Child death, Murder, Death, Sexual content, Alcohol, Car accident, Ableism, Blood, Chronic illness, Cursing, and Injury/injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Medical content, and Animal cruelty

jennyoli96's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Medical content, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Cursing and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal death and Body shaming

uranaishi's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Child death, Car accident, Chronic illness, Murder, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Gaslighting, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Gore, Ableism, Blood, Body shaming, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Abandonment, and Gun violence

Minor: Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Dementia, Drug use, and Pregnancy

kshertz's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

What a rollercoaster ride!! I love Alice’s books and I never can guess the twists. One twist I loved, the other I didn’t. I really thought I knew where they were going and I did not 😂. It’s a great who done it mystery novel and I definitely recommend it as excellent reading! It will keep you up though, it’s pretty scary at times. But I loved it!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Car accident, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Medical content, and Sexual content

toomanytbr's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Body shaming, Bullying, Murder, and Child abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Gore, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Suicide, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

cpachet's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

If you like Alice Feeney, this book does not feel like her other works. Typically I find she’s good at surprising me as a reader, but within the first few chapters, I predicted a major twist and spent the rest of the book until the reveal looking for clues to support my theory (I say this not as a brag, but because I was disappointed and felt unmotivated to keep reading). Few of the characters are redeemable

Spoiler

so when they started dying off one by one, I didn’t care and more relished their deaths. When Lily finally kicked it, I rejoiced. What an awful POS. Nana was cool and aside from Daisy, hers was the only death I was saddened by.

It’s a tragic tale of shitty parenting and monster siblings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Alcoholism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Blood, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Abandonment, Car accident, and Animal death

emmehooks's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.0

Gooped, gagged, shocked (I’ve never read any Agatha Christie so I didn’t know the trope coming in). Every time I thought I had something figured out, I was wrong. Going back after I finished reading, there were so many clever hints, semantics, and clues spread in the book. 

I enjoyed the blending of flashbacks and present, good pacing, and a plot I am very excited to talk about at book club!!! 

The ending was quite full circle but I wish there was a little more to answer a few lingering questions. A huge build-up to such a short conclusion despite leaving so much room for more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Car accident, Terminal illness, Violence, Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Medical content, Suicide, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Injury/injury detail, and Medical trauma

Minor: Blood, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Animal death, Body shaming, Infidelity, and Physical abuse

alexisgarcia's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

i absolutely loved this book. it was like a less racist and homophobic version of And Then We Were None by Agatha Christie. if someone would’ve proposed this book to me i would’ve never read it because the tropes seem cliché and underwhelming. however, the execution was flawless. she delivered these tropes i normally find stupid in such an impressive and compelling way imo. also the end interaction between two of the main characters genuinely brought me to tears. i would ABSOLUTELY recommend this to almost anyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Chronic illness, Medical content, Violence, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Addiction, Alcohol, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/injury detail, and Sexual content

kaitlinlovesbooks's review

dark mysterious 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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Murder, Medical content, and Blood

Minor: Bullying and Alcoholism