Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson

3 reviews

rylin_marie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

omggggg i love this series !!!

okay so for a while i shipped stevie and david, then stevie and nate, then stevie and hunter, and then overall picked david. 

the ellingham family is so dear to my heart i love them. and dottie epstein !! they all deserved sm better my heart breaks for them all. 

the only thing that annoys me is the stereotyping. this book automatically assumed all republicans are bad and racist and sexist which def isn’t true. i get there are DEFINITELY some people (not just republicans) like that and its completely disgusting bhr just assuming they all are is kinda annoying ? 

(if we’re being so fr i hated david for like 99% of the series and tbh im still not a huge fan 😭)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

whewtaewoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Drug abuse and Gun violence

Minor: Child abuse

emily_mh's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.0

This was terrible. I invested three books worth of time and money for THIS???????

Already, the culprit of the original mystery being Marsh was disappointing, not because I had predicted this from book one, but because money isn't an interesting motive!! It sucks!! And then Johnson goes and makes it the motive for the MODERN murders too???? And the murderer is a bare sketch of a character at that??? And also, it turns out Alice died of measles???? Did someone say massive cop out??? And then Stevie doesn't want to present the evidence about Alice's real parents, because that way the money stays with the school. With a PRIVATE. SCHOOL. Set up by a BILLIONAIRE. And people go on thinking Alice is missing instead of paying her respects and letting her rest. Other annoying things include: nothing actually happening in this book and a lack of tension despite the really interesting premise of being snowed in on a mountain in the middle of nowhere; David suddenly being okay with Stevie; Frankie and Eddie serving no purpose or character arc beyond hoarding evidence for future Stevie to find; and finally, the random moose motif that doesn't mean anything. The only thing saving this book from a one star is that it was borderline entertaining and creepy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Child birth, explosions, adoption, loss of a loved one (friend, aunt), illness