Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

24 reviews

chldshsambino's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

aaronreadsatad's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Sexism, Blood, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Torture, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Kidnapping, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Child death, Drug abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, and Physical abuse

rchltnnswd's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Gore, Sexual assault, Blood, Torture, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Drug use, Rape, Suicide, and Addiction

Minor: Fatphobia, Gun violence, and Fire/Fire injury

melissa_b_67's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Bullying, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Addiction, Blood, Death, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Child death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

amsswim's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book. Devastating look into a family torn apart by a missing sister. While I was able to predict some of the twists, the details and other parts kept me very interested and caught me off guard. My final listening session (today), I started at 60% and listened to the rest. Really picked up in the end, despite the beginning not really even dragging. The actions of the main characters felt believable and detailed. Overall a good read.

This was incredibly violent and graphic, so I'd recommend reading warnings before starting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Vomit, Child death, Death, Body horror, Drug use, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Grief, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Misogyny, Car accident, Sexism, Classism, Dementia, and Medical content

Minor: Cannibalism

lio_clementine's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

0.25

Strongly do not recommend.

I gave this novel 0.25 stars because it was a book that was written. For a book lauded for its thrilling aspects and thoughtful family drama, there is no thrill and there is no thought, just bloody, useless horror that fails to do anything but shock. Unfortunately, instead of representing the rage of women victimized repeatedly by their society, Pretty Girls tortures its main characters for the pleasure of an audience clearly imagined as male while seeping its depiction of violence against women in privilege and glamour. An irresponsible and poorly done romanticization of torture. In a word: careless. 

Also, I would ask Karen Slaughter to be more thoughtful in her depictions of mental illness. There are many resources online and in libraries for authors to read about mental health and therefore accurately and safely portray it in their work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Stalking, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gun violence, Fatphobia, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Car accident, Child death, Death, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism

astoriareader's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

SYNOPSIS:

• Julia vanished twenty years ago. Her sisters, Lydia and Claire, reunite after the death of Claire’s husband, Paul.
• The sisters search for answers about what happened to Julia, mysteries about Paul, and many other things as well.

MY THOUGHTS

• This book felt very slow-paced to me. I typically get through books very quickly, and this book just crept long for me.
• I am in the minority here, but I thought this book was just “meh” — lots of torture porn and graphic violence for no apparent reason.
• As a woman, I would love it if authors, especially women authors, could stop using gratuitous violence against women as a plot device. Do something creative. Raping and murdering women, which is described incessantly and in great detail, should not be entertainment.    

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️3 stars. Stop using gratuitous violence against women as a plot device. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Stalking, Violence, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, and Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

ladyeowyns's review against another edition

dark sad 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

4.0

Slaughter has a chronic case of writing "not like other girls" characters. Don't get it twisted though, this is a horror book. A lot of the reviews here seem confused about that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Trafficking, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Murder, Biphobia, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Sexual assault, Blood, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, and Gaslighting

Minor: Pedophilia and Dementia

support_lesbian's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.5

I know I gave this book a high score but is this book good? I dunno

I will say that the content described in this guess is very upsetting but I guess its as graphic as it needed to be based on the subject matter for the book but I really can't say for sure right now. I am quite satisfied with the conclusion this book went in as a mystery thriller novel because it like, actually commits to what makes sense and didn't back out of the story it was telling, upsetting narrative aside.

Beginning and ending chapters could have been stronger and there was definitely moments where the writing of the book made me raise my eyebrow in a skeptical way because of how unnecessary it was to me and like with all of these books it uses the scapegoat mental illness diagnosis to explain away character motivations when really they're just horrible scumbags that always leaves a bad taste.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide, and Violence

sarahjanehayes's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

This book felt like a nightmare fever dream what did I just read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Rape, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Body horror, Gaslighting, Violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault