Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead

20 reviews

abeavs's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, and Kidnapping

kaylanbacon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

abbyweber's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

1.5

I don’t understand how this was written by the same author who wrote “In My Dreams I Hold a Knife.” I enjoyed that book so much. This one? Not so much. I think this was supposed to be some girl-power revenge tale. It was not. It was somehow misogynistic and misandrist at the same time. The graphic description of assault was unnecessary and reeked of the author desperately trying to do something controversial that would get her those 5 GoodRead stars. And don’t get me started on the daddy issues at play.

At about the 25% mark, when they introduced the roommate’s dad, I knew instantly how this was going to play out and I was correct. If you know anything at all about NXIVM and/or The Sarah Lawrence cult, you also will know exactly how this story will go. The author would shove in your face the things that were should have breadcrumbs for you to figure out along the way. As soon as she said that the two roommates looked exactly alike, I just had to wait 300 pages for the reveal I knew was coming. And the end? The end was just so terrible. 

If I had a list of fictional characters who should have gone to therapy instead of the plot of their book, this girl would be at the top. So if you like poorly presented cults, a main character that wouldn’t know how to make a good decision if it bit her on the nose, and just overall terrible people except for one person who should have bailed the first chance he got, then this book is for you. Otherwise, I suggest you watch the documentaries “The Vow”, “Seduced”, and “Stolen Youth” to learn about the actual cults this atrocity was based on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

hannahchung's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Trafficking, and Murder

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I have so many feelings about this book. The beginning of the book was strong because it had a lot of tension. There was a build-up to learning about what happened to Shay, and then I felt like after she gets involved with the Paters, (which sounded kind of mispronounced from a Latin standpoint in the first part of the audiobook) the tension is just lost. The meetings can't be portrayed as super terrifying

if really nothing bad happens to Shay and she can escape all the time. Also what the hell was up with her getting the brand?

I feel like the violence got normalized to the reader because it was just more and more meetings. I did want to stop reading it a few times because the misogynistic language from The Bad Guys was too much. I also thought, and this felt confirmed by the author being an academic, that there were some Big Ideas about Feminism that were tried to be explored, but it felt heavy-handed and not concrete. Also, I really wanted to like Jamie, but I felt

not great about him from a reporter-is-exploiting-trauma standpoint and also that Shay seemed in no healthy mental state to be having a sexual relationship.

I feel like the reflections on the past had a lot of promise as a plot, but I started feeling lost as current events happened.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Police brutality, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Big alert - this has a lot of violence against women, misogynistic language, and sexual violence, so it's a rough time.

tealightfultomes's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

Ashley Winstead's writing style is gorgeous - she could write about paint drying and somehow make it sound intriguing and beautiful.

I have mixed feelings about this book; I enjoyed seeing how the story would unfold and the twist did surprise me, but I did have to suspend my disbelief a lot for the cult side of things. I could sort of see how it would happen, but

the girls seemed to get very heavily brainwashed over a short space of time and I found it hard to believe that Clem wouldn't have ran away sooner

.

I felt sad that Clem wasn't in the story more too, she was an interesting character and I think she would have made the main story a lot more gripping if

she'd had input in Shay's investigations and infiltration of the Paters.

The themes of the story are super important and I think they address a lot of very real problems with uni/college culture; it was a good read and I found myself unable to put this one down quite a few times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Misogyny, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, and Lesbophobia

riverrliam's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.5

This book was like a train wreck… horrific but I couldn’t look away. This book is DARK and full of abuse, misogyny, and trauma turned kink. Definitely a book you need to be prepared for. I found it exhilarating and scary and chaotic and sexy and tense. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Drug use and Death of parent

mommah's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was very hard for me to read. PLEASE PLEASE look up trigger warnings for this book to make sure you can handle its content. The imagery is very graphic in my opinion.

I think the author did a great job with the subject matter. It is well written.

It is so hard to believe thing like this exist in our world but the truth is, they do. It is  scary thought to know how easy it is to keep something this awful hidden in the shadows, how far it can really reach, and how many people that you would least expect to be involved in something like this. This is all I am going to say because I don't want to give anything away for those who chose to read the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, and Blood

jessicar86's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism