Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

106 reviews

mousecat's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction and Murder

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

photogenicegg's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-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? No

3.5

A very interesting way to tell a story. I enjoyed it, definitely thought I had it figured it out (or at least who it ~wasn't~). I liked the thorough investigation of different theories at the end and a complete explanation of the correct answer. Very much like solving one of those murder mystery boxes. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Murder

missgrangerr's review against another edition

funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

LOVED this book! I am a huge fan of stories told in unconventional ways, so seeing this book being told through emails and texts was a huge draw. The story was well told and plotted. Highly recommend to fans of mysteries.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, and Sexual assault

mclairemcc's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence and Murder

b33dubs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I could not put this book down. The author did an incredible job developing the characters just through how they write emails, as well as burying clues within the context of the emails (such as time stamps). The initial drama is in the interpersonal relationships, and the tension in wondering who will be murdered, how, and for what reason as you learn more about the characters and the secrets and grudges they hold. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Rape

rachel101's review against another edition

challenging funny informative mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

Don’t be put off by the style of the book, stay with it…. It’s a fabulous read 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cancer, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Toxic friendship

amroyer's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child death, Drug abuse, and Rape

sianh77's review against another edition

challenging slow-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? Yes

2.25

I liked the idea but it was hard to follow and lots of characters. Twist not as good as other Janice Hallet I’ve read

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Content Warnings

Minor: Murder

ashley_turch's review against another edition

challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Formatting is interesting and fun. It takes a minute to get used to but is a nice change of pace. Makes it fun to annotate and highlight, but I found myself saying often “ok people don’t actually e-mail like that.”

Personally was disappointed in the ending. It didn’t feel realistic to me. Maybe the format didn’t allow me to fully picture the characters being capable of these things —

the murder, that is. I definitely caught the other illegal things happening. 

Would have liked a closer look into Issy’s mental illness issues. Plus why did Martin treat James like such shit? Left with some questions , but maybe that’s the point?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Suicide, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infertility, Sexual assault, and Violence

Besides murder, most of the content is not super descriptive due to the nature of the book’s letter format. SA is discussed as something that happened in the past. Not graphic. Someone marked animal death/cruelty for this, but as someone who can never stomach that type of content, it ended up being totally fine. Calling it animal death was a stretch. (Explaining below - no major spoilers but hiding just in case)

The family dog has a foreign body obstruction surgery while being dogsat. The owner says to the sitter that if the surgery is more than $100 to just put the dog down. Messed up, yes, but doesn’t affect anyone. The surgery was paid for by a family member and the dog recovered swimmingly. He wasn’t mentioned again after this and seemed to be a happy boy from there on out.

bek_p87's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

• 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

4.25

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I loved the epistolary format, and the way we got to know the characters well in advance of finding out who the murder victim even was. Ordinarily I'd be frustrated by a murder mystery where you don't even find out who the victim is, let alone how they died, until more than halfway through the book, but the slow unravelling of the mysteries through texts and emails kept me engaged. I picked up on some of the twists, but most of them were so well-executed that I didn't even guess at their full extent. Highly recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Gaslighting

Minor: Murder