Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Appeal

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

quiet_reader's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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christygsp's review against another edition

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4.5

Honestly, this book was a dark horse for me! I didn’t expect to make it past 40 pages but I was in from start to finish.
The layout of reading correspondence and other documents was done very well, and I kept want to read just one more email. Though I will say that while I was waiting for an actual murder to happen, I did get a bit impatient.
The way this mystery was unravelled was clever, intriguing and kept my brain working all through. When I had a theory, something new came up and shook it. At the end I was half right and half wrong, which led to a great mic drop reveal!

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gabi_tron's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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jennshelfishlife's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

The Appeal is about a small, close-knit community involved in a murder. The story is told in epistolary format, where readers will read email exchanges (note: read the funny end notes on the emails), text messages, interviews, and litigation paperwork.
There are numerous characters in the story; fortunately, it was easy to follow each of their accounts since the characters are outlined in the Fairway Players theatre group's role sheet.

Martin Haywood's family, the alpha family, is undergoing a tragedy in their family as the young granddaughter is diagnosed with rare brain cancer. The family needs a life-saving therapy, still undergoing testing, in America, which leads to a crowdsource event led by the Fairway Players. However, the story is not as simple as that, and readers will delve into the Haywood family's discourse with Dr. Tish Bhatoa and the latter's history. Sam, a nurse, and new Fairway Player, begin to dig to uncover her suspicions of Dr. Bhatoa and finds more than she expected, leading to her untimely death.
A lot can be said about the story and the multiple storylines and how they intersect, but I will leave that to the readers. This reader would also like to note that the irony of the play being rehearsed is not lost on this reader.

The Appeal is a page-turning novel that left this reader appalled and amazed at how the story and the mysteries were unveiled.
The story has triggers (e.g., fraud, cancer, murder, rape), but they are mild, except for the fraud.
I recommend this novel to fans of mysteries and epistolary storytelling.
⭐⭐⭐⭐

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alisonannk's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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toofondofbooks_'s review

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I can't say too much about this book plot-wise because honestly I feel like you're better off going into it a bit blind the way that I did. However, of course, there's a synopsis available if you do wanna read it, I can't tell you what to do. I'm the boss of me, not you.

What I can tell you is that this is a murder mystery wherein you are provided texts, emails, and other bits of evidence for the case and are basically meant to solve it alongside the two young lawyers, Femi and Charlotte. I loved how this book was written *so* much. I'm nosey, so I loved the feel of reading people's emails and snooping around their shit. Plus, I really enjoyed actively trying to solve the mystery. I broke my tabs out, I got out my pen and my journal, and got to work. I simply had the best time. I can't BELIEVE that this is a debut novel. This author is a total auto-buy for me from here on out.

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clinachrstina's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Finished this in two days and really loved it. I see how the structure is super hit or miss, but for me it was a definite hit. It's a nice mix of mysteries that you can easily solve/guess at while reading and answers that only get revealed to you at the end. The book takes such an intricate look at a weird little community and so many of the emails made me chuckle out loud because people's behaviour was so absurd - but in a totally realistic way. Very well crafted and very entertaining!

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