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yessenyan's review against another edition
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
A repetitive book with lots of wasted potential inevitably ending with a disappointing and underwhelming finale. It was laughable and entertaining at best.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Death, Eating disorder, and Death of parent
leexpen's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
📝 SYNOPSIS:
Struggling with all-consuming rage, Jane North-Robinson feels chilled by more than just the autumn air when she and her mother move to her mother's childhood home, where Jane must dig up her mother's secrets to understand what is happening.
🏚📚🌹🎒🪦👻👩👧🎃😭
👍🏻 RECOMMENDATION:
💛 READ IF you've got nothing else, if it works for a reading challenge, etc.
Struggling with all-consuming rage, Jane North-Robinson feels chilled by more than just the autumn air when she and her mother move to her mother's childhood home, where Jane must dig up her mother's secrets to understand what is happening.
🏚📚🌹🎒🪦👻👩👧🎃😭
👍🏻 RECOMMENDATION:
💛 READ IF you've got nothing else, if it works for a reading challenge, etc.
💬 FAVORITE QUOTES:
• Pg. 201
do books taste like roses?
• Pg. 209-210 (TR: Mental illness, depression)
A flash of the earth with everything destroyed except this house, the last building standing, and Jane within it, trapped inside its walls, not really caring anymore whether she made it out or not.
• Pg. 214 (TR: Mental illness, compulsive behaviors)
She imagined the words dissolving off the paper and sinking into her bloodstream. She imagined her body filled with words. Made up of them. Words instead of blood, words instead of organs.
👓 FORMAT:
📖
📑 COMMENTS:
• The main characters are complex and flawed. Jane's friends are heartwarming and supportive.
• Jane is frustrating slow to figure out what happened, leaping to illogical conclusions for the sake of continuing the mystery.
• I mostly agree with the Booklist quote on the back, which reads, "Leno blends Agatha Christie and Shirley Jackson for a narrative that ranges from unsettling to genuinely terrifying." (I did not find the narrative terrifying but otherwise agree.)
• The book starts a little too slow, and it ends a little too quickly, but the middle is well-paced.
• Race is poorly represented. Some of the characters seem like they were originally intended to be POCs but were changed to white or the author used POC aesthetics. The black characters are black only in description of skin tone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, and Pregnancy
Minor: Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism
madamenovelist's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, and Grief
Moderate: Violence
quercine's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Incredibly unique style and really vivid writing. The setting, atmosphere, and emotions are all very richly detailed, and once things got going I couldn’t stop reading. There are lots of layers to symbolism and metaphors, as well as to the relationships between characters.
The ending was unexpected and shocking, and left me sort of just staring into the middle distance for a while. I hated it as the conclusion for characters I had grown to love but loved it as a piece of writing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit
Minor: Confinement
vi_holmes's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I loved this book so much...until the ending. Leno does such a great job of making you feel Jane's paranoia and her spiral. I was so immersed in the story! To the point that the predictability of the twists was very forgivable. But I can't forgive how blunt and pointless the ending is. It feels like there's a whole 3rd act missing.
TLDR: Scary, but the ending -- or really lack thereof -- took a lot away from it.
TLDR: Scary, but the ending -- or really lack thereof -- took a lot away from it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder
Moderate: Self harm and Suicide
themes of paranoia, anger management issues due to mental health, and feelings of growing insanityilaxaria's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Suicide and Alcohol
greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
madkatrob's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, and Murder
paulineerika's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
I struggled with how to rate and review this book. What came to mind was that if this had been a horror movie, I would have found it satisfactorily creepy, but would have still wanted more in terms of back story on the North family (especially Emilia North). Actually, I think this would have made quite a good movie. As a book, the tension is there, but not quite as palpable. The need for more information about the North family (and why no one was forthcoming with Jane) is more noticeable. And the ending, which was probably purposely vague, doesn't pack quite as much of a punch and leaves the reader a little frustrated.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, and Grief
Minor: Suicide
tpsebast92's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Bullying and Violence