Reviews tagging 'Death'

Girl, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke

11 reviews

navayiota's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

Suspenseful.. engaging writing, and the characters were very well rounded. make sure to check trigger warnings before reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Child abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Stalking, Torture, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Abandonment, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Excrement, Animal death, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

emilynied'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

3.5

I really liked the set up and execution of this book. First of all, for a mystery, the world building and character work was really well done. Elle was a well rounded character and I loved Martin - he is one of the best side-character book husbands I've ever read :) I don't know, his character was just super thoughtful and fun, and worked well with Elle and the plot. 

I also thought that there was some pretty well thought out character development. Elle puts herself right into these cases, and I think at first you think of her as one of those true crime junkies that brings light to cases (but always ends up inserting themself into the narrative). BUT, in a huge plot twist, you come to understand why, for this case in particular. I didn't see it coming at all (which I feel like I should have...) but that was definitely a game changer. 

The shifts between podcast narration and real life kept me on my toes and it was pretty well written. I didn't love the inclusion of

TCK's background, just because it felt kind of hypocritical...in the end Elle deletes the podcast because she thought it gave TCK too much fame (which is exactly what he wanted), yet the author chose to include his POV and story? I know this is fictional, but I think that it was supposed to reflect reality to some extent, right?

. Overall, I think this is good commentary on true crime and the dramatization of crime in the media. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Vomit, Child death, and Death

o_w_e_n's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Child death, Gun violence, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Grief

Minor: Infidelity and Infertility

directorpurry's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Child death, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death of parent and Self harm

dorsetreader's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Torture, Stalking, Child death, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Kidnapping, Murder, Gun violence, Child abuse, and Death

liormaleficent's review against another edition

tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Infertility, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, and Vomit

shelightsupwell's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Gun violence

Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, and Excrement

nisha_nee's review against another edition

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

I recommend this to fans of true crimes and podcasts or both! This was a decent thriller that kept me entertained and reminiscing my love for true crime. I love the family aspect in this one and how supportive Martin is to Elle. I also like the whole concept behind Justice Delayed and that the author included psychology facts and trivia. The only thing that I would have changed was to make the suspect suffer more. He got away way too easily!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Kidnapping, Infertility, and Child abuse

Moderate: Infertility and Panic attacks/disorders

hazelgirl21's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Child abuse, and Torture

thrillofthepage's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

Girl, 11 is a suspenseful, dark, and captivating story about a serial killer who captures and kills three girls over a period of seven days, each victim one year younger than the girl before. The premise alone had me hooked and I couldn’t wait to read this one.

Elle Castillo is our main character and the host of a popular true crime podcast. The current season is devoted to solving The Countdown Killer (TCK) case, which is a challenge because he hasn’t killed in 20 years. Elle always thinks outside the box and is constantly trying to tie everything back to TCK, sometimes to her detriment. She is a very strong female character, but as the story progresses we start to see cracks form in her theories, as well as herself. Even though Elle starts to go off the rails we never view her as weak or delusional. I appreciate that Clarke never portrayed Elle as hysterical or weak, even if she was a bit reckless and made some not so great decisions.

Throughout the book I kept waiting for the bottom to fall out and Clarke did a phenomenal job laying the foundation for the twists by developing Elle’s character, the secondary characters, and plot. I love the way Clarke included transcripts from the podcast, both aired and unaired, because it provided important insight into the inner workings of Elle’s mind. This seems to be a new way of thriller writing and I am here for it! It’s a great way to break up the book and add more to the overall story without being choppy.

The last thing I want to mention is that the author crafted a diverse cast of characters. She included POC and LGBTQA+ in the story and nothing about it felt superficial. I hope other authors take notes and we start to see more representation in this genre.

This was a brilliant debut novel and I am looking forward to reading whatever Clarke puts out next!

Thank you Netgalley and HMH Books for my advanced copy.  All opinions are my own. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Blood, Cursing, Death of parent, and Excrement