magmck's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Medical content, Terminal illness, Ableism, Alcohol, Confinement, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Sexual content, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Stalking, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Cancer, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Gore, and Torture
uhhlexiconic's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Drug use, Child death, Addiction, Cancer, Car accident, Death, and Forced institutionalization
tiernanhunter's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Cancer, Cannibalism, Death, Drug abuse, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Car accident, Child death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexism, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence
lancemama's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Death, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Misogyny, and Police brutality
jlswitchblades's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, and Torture
erica_reads_things's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Blood, Gun violence, Car accident, Violence, Death, Gore, Murder, and Misogyny
Moderate: Medical content, Stalking, Mental illness, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, and Kidnapping
Minor: Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, and Toxic relationship
thenovelbookshelf's review against another edition
- 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 has a great storyline, although it is unrealistic. The character and world building is so surreal that your brain is tricked into thinking you are read-watching a slasher-horror movie.
My high rating is partially biased as I grew up on the 90s/noughties slasher horror movies (IKWYDLS, Scream, Urban Legends, Halloween, & with Freddy & Jason) and loved watching 70s-90s horror movies (Leprechaun, Hellraiser, The Howling, Children of the Corn, Pumpkinhead, Phantasm)
Graphic: Gun violence, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Blood, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Mental illness
Minor: Infidelity, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury
megansmith's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The main problem I had with it is you could very clearly feel this was a book about women's issues and trauma written by a man. Every female character felt seen only through the lens of a man and men's thinking around women and it was so difficult to read the book for that reason. IE, one example - I don't think the book really figured out if these women liked or disliked being commodified as much as they were. Lynnette hates being in the spotlight but she also solely refers to the people in her group as Final Girls (and that's sentence case, because they're a Thing). 95% of this book was just women hating each other, women hating themselves, and some visual descriptions of torture, with a small bit of a redemption arc for the last 15 pages of a 300+ page book. I think I'd be interested seeing this written through a female gaze but also, this book really ruined that idea for me.
The plot felt so messy, it felt like the most amount of changes for the suspected killer(s) in any piece of thriller / mystery media I have ever read or seen. There were so many pieces of plot that felt unexplained or small missing details that threw me out of the moment, which sucked. Stephanie just felt so random and sudden and made little sense in this book. And to boot, it truly made no sense to me for how "smart" Lynette was with all the doomsday prepping she did, she still made a bunch of freaking dumb mistakes. Like, she managed to get her own burner phone but had zero concerns using Stephanie's phone as they tried discretely traveling across the country? So. many. inconsistencies. I get flawed characters are flawed for a reason, but this just felt messy and not thought out.
I will give this book the credit in that I did finish it REALLY quickly, Im not sure if it's because I had a nightmare about myself getting murdered when I had to pause right before bed at the details of Lynette's backstory, or if I was really wanting to know who was behind it all, but I'll let you decide (whoever ends up reading this). There was some solid writing styles, just a badly executed idea that probably should have been written through the female gaze.
Graphic: Murder, Gore, Body horror, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Death of parent, Torture, Blood, Violence, Police brutality, and Death
Moderate: Child death and Car accident
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Excrement, and Emotional abuse
obsessedteach's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Torture, Blood, Car accident, Child death, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Medical trauma
elderwoodreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Blood, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Stalking, Alcoholism, Cancer, Car accident, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Addiction, and Kidnapping
Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Ableism, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, and Confinement