Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Agathas by Liz Lawson, Kathleen Glasgow

34 reviews

tigger89's review

mysterious 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? No

3.0

I can see why some people would really like this book, but it didn't hold a lot of appeal to me. I thought the mystery was well done, particularly some of the reveals leading into the climax. I wasn't really a fan of the wealthy community setting, but I think it was used well even though I didn't personally like it. The fact that we had two narrators was used to great dramatic effect plot-wise, though I did find their narrative voices difficult to tell apart. The chapters are labeled with their names, but sometimes if I got distracted I'd forget partway through a chapter who I was following, and I'd have to flip back until I found a clue to remember, oh yeah, this is Iris or this is Alice.

I was somewhat disappointed that the involvement of Christie was limited mostly to literary quotes at the beginning of chapters and the fact that the main characters like her books. This might have been an unfair expectation on my part, based on the marketing for the book, but I was expecting something where specific scenes or twists would be referenced from Christie's canon to apply to the situation at hand. That didn't really happen, apart from the most general inspirations. But this really is kind of a quibble. If I'd read a different blurb that didn't stress Christie's importance so much, I don't think I would have complained about this at all. Blame it on the marketing!

The other thing that I couldn't help but laugh at is the chase at the climax. If you know, you know. The whole time I was like, that's not how horses work! None of this is realistic for your relationship/trust level with this panic machine horse! It's a silly horse girl fantasy moment in an otherwise serious title, which sticks out. But again it's not a major complaint, and the unrealistic nature of the climax doesn't really affect the mystery itself, just the drama surrounding it.

All in all, I didn't like the book, but I think that's more down to us not being for each other than any significant fault in the book itself. There is definitely a kind of person out there who would be very into this story. In fact, if I'd had this book in my hands 20 years ago, I know exactly which girl in my scout troop I would've handed it to. It's just not my thing, and that's okay.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Death, Stalking, Violence, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Classism, and Car accident

library_kb's review

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

This is a good YA mystery to hand to fans of We Were Liars and Karen McManus. It was a slow start for me, and I didn't get fully invested until the second half of the story. I did like the twists the story took toward the end (I didn't guess them at all), even though I feel like the school district needs to take a hard look at their professional development because all the teachers in this story could definitely be fired or have their license revoked for ethical violations. Actually all the adults in the story need to take an ethics course. Even students who know nothing about Agatha Christie will be good, because while referenced, it is not integral to the plot. I will have to say that I wanted to know more about the mysteries in Iris' and Alice's lives and was a little disappointed with the development of those reveals. Overall, recommend to 8th grade and up!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse

amberinpieces's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Classism, Domestic abuse, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Blood

Minor: Body horror, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Cursing, Grief, Stalking, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Sexual content

hannahfaith25's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Car accident and Violence

spaghettii's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Definitely left the ending open for more books 👀
Shipped the main characters so hard but I'm thinking they're both straight, unfortunately. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Death, Toxic friendship, Murder, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Drug use, Grief, Child death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Stalking

corals's review

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Car accident, Murder, Death of parent, and Grief

bookcheshirecat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexism, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Abandonment

harrietcarrot72's review

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I flipping LOVE this book

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, and Gore

Minor: Drug use, Violence, and Alcohol

Includes an ongoing story with one of the main characters suffering from domestic abuse and also

Spoiler

the victim's dad's girlriend kills her bc she said that her dad was too good for her

also brief mentions of sex and crude language

kshertz's review

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Excellent mystery! I couldn’t guess who did it. I found the two protagonists to be fascinating and I loved them. The story makes sense and there’s so much going on that gets wrapped up beautifully. Highly recommend it as a lighter mystery to try to solve. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Murder, Violence, Body shaming, Bullying, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Death of parent, Child death, Body horror, Death, and Domestic abuse

goldyyy's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, and Stalking