Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead

299 reviews

eponineq's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5


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veepopp's review against another edition

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

3.5


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seriouslyshannon's review against another edition

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3.5

“There would never be another antagonist more insidious than her own mind.”

Lots of trigger warnings on this one (grooming, rape, sexual/physical violence, suicide, drug use, trauma, cults). The story sucked me in around the 20% mark. If you are fascinated to learn about the NXIVM cult, this is the book for you. I had a hard time connecting with the main character, which is the only reason I didn’t rate this book higher.

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pkrantz's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • 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

2.5

First off, to call this a thriller would be wrong. A mystery, maybe. 

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife is one of my all time fav thrillers. Imagine my shock when I found out this book is about 75% explicit se-ual a-ault of women in extremely gruesome ways. 

I don't necessarily dislike dark, heavy and complex subjects and I do think this could have been done so well but it wasn't. I love morally grey and complex characters but I think that implying that female characters might have enjoyed what is essentially r**e is not the way to go. 

The relationships also felt weird. Shay feels Laurel is like a sister to her, but she knew her 2 years and haven't talked to her in 8 years? The romance plot also felt forced, and I didn't really see the point of Shay being married at all. 

The plot had good bones, it really did. But none of the twists were unexpected and I felt like the s**ual violence was used for shock value sometimes more than anything. 

I have to say that I never did think of DNF:ing so I was interested in the plot. But the ending felt dumb overall. The one thing I liked about it was that Shay
killed Don
, but the fact that
Laurel k**led herself, they air a podcast and apparently FBI cares about that, and then they think the charges against Shay will be dropped when she hacked someone with an axe in plain sight of the FBI (very Clytemnestra coded btw, loved it)
, come on. Do better. 

The book could easily have been 100 pages shorter and yet the ending felt rushed.

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miracl3gro's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • 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

This was a twist I did not see coming.  Insightful, mysterious and frightening. 

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asrose12's review against another edition

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

3.0

This left me with that what the fuck did I just read feeling. I was also not prepared for graphic descriptions of the cult practices nor the amount of them. I probably wouldn't have read the book if I had known that part. The story did suck me in, almost against my will which just leaves me feeling unsettled. 

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dtunkel's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.75


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murph_reads's review against another edition

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dark 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

Not for the faint of heart. Everything you don’t want to be possible exists in this story, but it shines a light on how deeply rooted misogyny and sexism are in our culture. Unfortunately, looking at current events proves that while this is technically a work of fiction, there’s enough evil in the world to make it wholly believable. 

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rinj's review against another edition

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

3.0


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tayyylorhb's review against another edition

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3.5


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