Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

18 reviews

mlbreton's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I really did like this book overall. It was a fun read and I kept trying to guess the outcome and kept getting it wrong! 

I did have some issues with the book, but mostly with the characters and what the author was trying to make us feel about them. For example,

Spoiler

I found Isa awful. I thought it was so cruel of her the way she treated her husband and being so offended that he thought he was cheating, but she was being so distant and not communicating with him AT ALL so I think it's natural his head went where it did! And we're we supposed to LIKE Ambrose, the father/artist that drew his daughter and teenage friends NAKED?! I don't care how much the main girls said it "wasn't like that", it's creepy as hell and SO inappropriate. Lastly, with Kate and Luc, we're we supposed to be rooting for them at the end? Or find it romantic that she wanted to sacrifice her life and freedom for her brother she was SEXUALLY INVOLVED WITH?!? I did not get that at all and couldn't get past that weird family dynamic to find any of them likeable.

Overall, the book kept me engaged but I did find it disappointing that it ended on

Spoiler

another lie

instead of having the characters grow from that

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Content Warnings

Minor: Eating disorder, Infidelity, Murder, Self harm, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Incest

cmklaft's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

1.75

Spoiler

Main character and obsessive relationship with child unnecessary to plot and honestly obnoxious. I don't need to read that you breastfeeding every other page, got it your child it hungry thanks for all the unnecessary details with 0 value added. Plot was predictable, no wow factor, slow slow start that just seemed to drag everything out.  So many holes in the story.  Major details compared to previous novels

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Addiction, Animal death, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Suicide

Moderate: Drug abuse, Murder, Drug use, Self harm, Eating disorder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death

bella_donna's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

Moderate: Grief, Suicide, Abandonment, Addiction, Bullying, Drug use, and Murder

Minor: Self harm, Eating disorder, and Sexual content

kelley_beth's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.0

This was your standard B-grade psychological thriller. The pages moved well enough, but some real cleverness was totally lacking. The characters were even less than 2/dimensional and I never really felt like any of the relationships between characters had real genuineness to them. The final climax of the book also went in a far too dramatic turn when compared with the middle 40-60% of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Incest, Addiction, Murder, Self harm, Child abuse, Drug use, and Suicide

juliane's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Addiction, and Self harm

Minor: Islamophobia

katsmedialibrary's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Alcohol, and Drug use

Moderate: Eating disorder, Self harm, and Incest

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Death of parent, Infidelity, Drug abuse, Grief, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Medical content, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Self harm, and Stalking

Minor: Cancer, Islamophobia, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, and Bullying

oliviaclaire's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I have generally had a very positive experience of Ruth Ware and really enjoyed both The Turn of The Key and The Death of Mrs Westaway but unfortunately The Lying Game just didn't do it for me. This one is a slow burn but unlike the last book I read (The Glass House), this one drags. I found myself flicking forward through pages to see how much further I had to go and wondering when things would begin to pick up pace, which they didn't until quite a rushed conclusion. 

My second gripe is that Isa as a main character is just not a likeable woman, she's obsessed with herself and her baby and cares about little to nothing else except for her toxic friendships. Having said that, even these still take a back seat to pages and pages on her holding and feeding her baby at various intervals. (I should caveat this point with the fact that I'm not a mother, so maybe this 'new mum' obsessive paranoia is supposed to act as an important facet of her character or a plot point of its own but it doesn't seem to come to much.)

Spoiler

She also takes no personal responsibility, getting incredibly angry at her boyfriend and the father of her child for accusing her of being distant and possibly having an affair when she disappears to the coast for a few days out of nowhere to visit friends she hasn't seen in 17 years and then is incredibly irritable and evasive on her return, even when she is then sent random roses by her childhood crush. It's capped by the fact that she does indeed end up having the affair he suspects her of with said childhood crush and feels no remorse for it whatsoever...

All in all, I really wanted to enjoy this book but unfortunately it didn't have the clever twists and dramatic reveals I'm so used to from Ruth Ware and instead felt like a long book about quite a short and simple story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Addiction, Eating disorder, Self harm, and Terminal illness

lottevanderpaelt's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Self harm, Sexual assault, and Child abuse

loandbeholdx's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Drug use, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Suicide, Self harm, and Murder

Minor: Addiction and Eating disorder