Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter

59 reviews

kristinahreads's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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mynameisrebecca's review against another edition

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

2.5

This book tries to do the classic Agatha Christie format of a murder where everyone's a suspect. There's lots of red herrings and twists, but I was able to get close to the actual resolution pretty early on. It's written in "script" format though which really is the book's undoing - all the characters are indistinguishable, the narration and timeline becomes messy, and gets repetitive.
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bea_reads_books's review against another edition

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tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Originally I expected to give this book three stars, because it seems to be trying to make a point about the way true crime media often re-traumatizes victims and crosses boundaries in the pursuit of sensationalism. However it did not do this well, and that aspect fell flat. I bumped off another half star about half way through because of the casual sprinklings of racism/copaganda and zionism throughout, but it was the last 15% of the book that really pissed me off and caused me to put it at 2 stars. The end of this book is so disgustingly ableist, makes absolutely no fucking sense, and heavily leans into the demonization of mental heath conditions/trauma. It reinforces the idea that trauma makes people violent to the point of senseless murder. I am so angry right now, the book had a really great ending all mapped out, a road it could’ve taken, and instead it did exactly the same nasty shit that true crime tv so often does (which is ironic considering the author seemed to be *trying* to make a point about that).
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lizeylu's review against another edition

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

1.25

I felt like this book had so much potential to be super cool as the concept of “solving it before the experts” is a fun idea but wasn’t really applicable. There were so many plot twists which I can see is fun and keeps the story going but it’s impossible to predict as the twists are so far fetched. 

Spoiler:
I felt like there wasn’t much information put into the actual story when we found out in the end so it ended up not feeling very solved. There were also so many loop holes and loose ends. The timings were also super confusing?? The show was recorded in May - July but broadcasted in October but somehow the audience was reacting to the story and somehow Ian Wilson was following the show in July even though it hadn’t been released yet?? Just not very clear and the mistakes really knock the fourth wall down. I also really disliked that all the experts were involved in some way, like I felt that a similar story could be really well done with unbiased experts. It just wasn’t necessary to the story to involve them imo. 
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chapters_and_pages's review against another edition

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dark tense 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

I had heard good things about Cara Hunter’s books, so I was excited to delve into this one. Unfortunately, it kind of missed the mark for me. 

Twenty years ago, Luke Ryder was found dead in the garden of the family home, where he lived with his wife and three stepchildren. Years on, and still no one knows who is responsible for his brutal murder. Now, a group of experts are coming together to cover the case on a true-crime show, and they are determined to get to the bottom of it - no matter what. 

I really enjoy mystery/thrillers but I have to admit, this one isn’t very high up the list. I loved the fact that the story was told in a very unique way, episode by episode, almost like a script. While the idea of it was great, and the execution decent, I think it had a negative impact on the connection I felt to the characters.m, because unfortunately, there wasn’t really any. 

The killer was quite predictable in my opinion, but I think given the victim and crime, their wasn’t too many options. Also, I found the reasoning and motivation for the crime that be anticlimactic and disappointing. 

Overall, this wasn’t a bad book, however, it’s not one for me unfortunately. 
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kirstenpod_'s review against another edition

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

3.25

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abigaelf's review against another edition

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

3.0

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lmatthysse's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

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fengxin's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

i adore books in an unusual formatting and this one delivered at every turn. the characterization was incredible and with a cast this wide it's a testament to the author's talent that they all managed to feel so real. i felt like i was watching an actual tv show, the way the forums and even spoiler free review articles were included made it even more so. the plot wasn't the greatest but the twists and the way they each were presented kept me absolutely hooked. i couldn't put this book down.
the way the entire team was connected in some way to the story, i was losing my mind every time a new link was revealed. mitchell being a pedophile? god that one hurt i really liked him; and laila with the "did she love you?" pissed me off so bad. she was 15, he was 21, he should be in prison. as for the big reveal, i thought it was one of the sisters but for it to be guy? i was baffled.
overall, a good book.
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lauren023's review against another edition

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

2.5

A disappointment. I was very excited for this book but it was tedious and I had predicted the outcome already within the first fifty pages. The characters spent a lot of time fighting which didn’t add anything to the plot and would have cut the book down by half.
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