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ems_rxlibrary's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Rape, Violence, Blood, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infertility, Infidelity, and Sexual content
fkshg8465's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I think this was her first published book. It was good, but the other ones I’ve read by her were so much better. Still, it’s good getting to know Will Trent’s doctor friend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
alindeman's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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? No
3.5
This is my second Karin Slaughter book. It’s not as interesting or well written as Pretty Girls, but it’s also not as disturbing. (This is still plenty disturbing tho). The mystery was interesting. I like Sara Linton and learning her story was heartbreaking. Jeffrey sucks. Like he almost doesn’t suck and then he’ll just do or say something (or not do or say something) and then I’m like yeah you suck. Lena is awful oh my god she’s insufferable Jesus Christ get therapy. So safe to say none of the characters are particularly likable which I think probably really takes away from things for me. I think I would like this book/series much more if I was strongly rooting for one or more characters. Like I like Sara but even then she does some stupid shit and I’m like why do I like you again?? Also the writing… idk it’s like not bad but there were a few times where the way Karin wrote something struck me as kind of problematic. Not even from the characters POV just like general narration. But yeah the only thing going for these books for me is the mystery of the crime.
Check TW for this book!!!!!
Plot summary for when I forget (major TW for violence & SA):
Sara Linton is the pediatrician and coroner for this small town. Her ex-husband is the sheriff. Sara goes to the bathroom in the town diner and finds a woman stabbed and dying. She tries to save her but she dies, she was murdered. This woman is the sister of a detective named Lena. Lena sucks she’s so mean but like mean bc has trauma and needs therapy. Desperately. I just can’t stand the characters who are like “I’m so tough fuck you I don’t need anyone, actually I’m crying on the inside but I won’t tell anyone” grow up! Anyways. The woman was killed in a seemingly ritualistic way, slashed in the form of a cross. No real suspects.
Then while Sara is at the hospital a woman is dumped on the hood of her car. She is still alive and Sara saves her. She has holes in her hands and feet and it’s clear she was in like a crucifixion pose. She was drugged with belladonna which is apparently like not a drug to be fucked around with its super tricky and lethal. She won’t talk to anyone. Finally Lena gets her to talk and obviously she’s super traumatized and Lena does such an awful fucking job interviewing her that the girl manages to steal her gun and kill herself. With the gun to her head Lena is still fucking INTERROGATING HER!!!! Basically the belladonna makes things like not hurt and gives you a flying feeling and in a way made her captivity more pleasant which made it more traumatic in the end bc she probably felt so much guilt and shame. And in response to the girl hinting at this Lena says “are you saying you enjoyed it?” And then she pulls the trigger. I hate Lena so fucking much what the fuck is wrong with you why would you say that?!??? She’s honestly such an awful cop she always says the wrong things.
So she’s dead sadly but the realize this is like super religious and ritualistic.
Jeffrey makes Lena take time off after the girls suicide and she gets kidnapped. We don’t know by who but we know she knows him. The story continues as she’s held captive, they don’t realize right away.
Sara’s sister tells Sara “you have to tell Jeffrey” and you’re like tell him what?? And she leaves a case file for him and you learn that when she was working at a hospital like one county over she was horrifically attacked. It seems kind of similar- she was raped by a religious dude who then stabbed her like Jesus was stabbed. Jeffrey loses his mind at his wife being hurt like that and wants to pay the offender a visit. He’s so sad for her but doesn’t know what to say and so just doesn’t contact her. Again, he was so close to being good and then he sucks. She bared her soul and he ignored her. So he visits the rapist who is NOT in prison (of fucking course) even tho he raped 2 more women after her. He’s on house arrest and is 1 strike away from going back to prison which he desperately doesn’t want to do. It doesn’t seem that he could be the perpetrator bc of his ankle monitor. Regardless Jeff wants to grill him. He breaks into his home and finds he has a gun- bingo that’s leverage. He confronts the dude and breaks his ankle monitor so his parole lady will show up. Based on how horrific Jeff’s case is she lets him talk to the rapist. He’s obviously psycho and he keeps tabs on Sara. The go over the case and it’s revealed that Sara’s car getting keyed with the word “cunt” wasn’t his doing which Jeff finds suspicious. He has the parole lady get him a list of the doctors Sara worked with but it doesn’t ring a bell.
Meanwhile they’re interviewing the bf of the girl who committed suicide, which is a piece of shit. He conveniently forgot to mention he saw her being dragged into a car by a man. Oops.
The girl had told Lena before she died that there was a persistent “clink clink clink” of dripping water.
Sara visits the house of the guy she’s kind of seeing, Jeb. And she hears the clink clink clink. So now you know it’s him. But she doesn’t.
She has a date with him. He’s at her house and brings wine. The wine is sour, like vinegar. Sara knows the victims were given vinegar. She is now on alert. Then he talks about his dead sister and shows her a photo. She recognizes the photo. The girl was a patient she treated who died from a botched at home abortion. Sara now knows he’s the killer (probably). She excuses herself to change and tries to call Jeff but the phone is off the hook. He follows her with a knife, he knows she knows. She jumps out the window, dives into the lake. He gets in a boat, chasing her. He crashes and capsizes. He can’t swim, he’s drowning. He sinks to the bottom. She doesn’t want him to die for some reason, maybe bc it’s too easy a death (that’s my thought) so she tries to rescue him but it’s freezing cold and he’s so heavy she’s totally about to die. Jeff arrives and saves her. He got a second list and turns out Jeb was a pharmacist working at the same hospital as her and the message “cunt” was found for every victim, including Lena (oh yeah they found her missing from her house).
Jeb is dead and they rescue Lena. I think that’s it
Check TW for this book!!!!!
Plot summary for when I forget (major TW for violence & SA):
Then while Sara is at the hospital a woman is dumped on the hood of her car. She is still alive and Sara saves her. She has holes in her hands and feet and it’s clear she was in like a crucifixion pose. She was drugged with belladonna which is apparently like not a drug to be fucked around with its super tricky and lethal. She won’t talk to anyone. Finally Lena gets her to talk and obviously she’s super traumatized and Lena does such an awful fucking job interviewing her that the girl manages to steal her gun and kill herself. With the gun to her head Lena is still fucking INTERROGATING HER!!!! Basically the belladonna makes things like not hurt and gives you a flying feeling and in a way made her captivity more pleasant which made it more traumatic in the end bc she probably felt so much guilt and shame. And in response to the girl hinting at this Lena says “are you saying you enjoyed it?” And then she pulls the trigger. I hate Lena so fucking much what the fuck is wrong with you why would you say that?!??? She’s honestly such an awful cop she always says the wrong things.
So she’s dead sadly but the realize this is like super religious and ritualistic.
Jeffrey makes Lena take time off after the girls suicide and she gets kidnapped. We don’t know by who but we know she knows him. The story continues as she’s held captive, they don’t realize right away.
Sara’s sister tells Sara “you have to tell Jeffrey” and you’re like tell him what?? And she leaves a case file for him and you learn that when she was working at a hospital like one county over she was horrifically attacked. It seems kind of similar- she was raped by a religious dude who then stabbed her like Jesus was stabbed. Jeffrey loses his mind at his wife being hurt like that and wants to pay the offender a visit. He’s so sad for her but doesn’t know what to say and so just doesn’t contact her. Again, he was so close to being good and then he sucks. She bared her soul and he ignored her. So he visits the rapist who is NOT in prison (of fucking course) even tho he raped 2 more women after her. He’s on house arrest and is 1 strike away from going back to prison which he desperately doesn’t want to do. It doesn’t seem that he could be the perpetrator bc of his ankle monitor. Regardless Jeff wants to grill him. He breaks into his home and finds he has a gun- bingo that’s leverage. He confronts the dude and breaks his ankle monitor so his parole lady will show up. Based on how horrific Jeff’s case is she lets him talk to the rapist. He’s obviously psycho and he keeps tabs on Sara. The go over the case and it’s revealed that Sara’s car getting keyed with the word “cunt” wasn’t his doing which Jeff finds suspicious. He has the parole lady get him a list of the doctors Sara worked with but it doesn’t ring a bell.
Meanwhile they’re interviewing the bf of the girl who committed suicide, which is a piece of shit. He conveniently forgot to mention he saw her being dragged into a car by a man. Oops.
The girl had told Lena before she died that there was a persistent “clink clink clink” of dripping water.
Sara visits the house of the guy she’s kind of seeing, Jeb. And she hears the clink clink clink. So now you know it’s him. But she doesn’t.
She has a date with him. He’s at her house and brings wine. The wine is sour, like vinegar. Sara knows the victims were given vinegar. She is now on alert. Then he talks about his dead sister and shows her a photo. She recognizes the photo. The girl was a patient she treated who died from a botched at home abortion. Sara now knows he’s the killer (probably). She excuses herself to change and tries to call Jeff but the phone is off the hook. He follows her with a knife, he knows she knows. She jumps out the window, dives into the lake. He gets in a boat, chasing her. He crashes and capsizes. He can’t swim, he’s drowning. He sinks to the bottom. She doesn’t want him to die for some reason, maybe bc it’s too easy a death (that’s my thought) so she tries to rescue him but it’s freezing cold and he’s so heavy she’s totally about to die. Jeff arrives and saves her. He got a second list and turns out Jeb was a pharmacist working at the same hospital as her and the message “cunt” was found for every victim, including Lena (oh yeah they found her missing from her house).
Jeb is dead and they rescue Lena. I think that’s it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction and Drug abuse
hambo221's review against another edition
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Medical content, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Racism
xanthippe's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, and Sexual harassment
quinnoriel's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, and Sexual harassment
yunna's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
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? No
5.0
This book is FILTHY GOOD. THIS IS A CRIME THRILLER DONE RIGHT. Multilayered characters and storyline? Different POVs? and most importantly well-researched detective work and medical knowledge!
Had a hard time at first as I don't normally read gore stuff like this. But push past that and it's an incredible ride.
I really admire Sara's resilience. She's such a strong FMC. The fact that she's a pediatrician who has a coroner side job just screams badass. I also love the tension in her relationship with Jeff. Battling personal and interpersonal issues while going on and saving people's lives is not an easy task. It's not so hard to relate their lives to ours. And the fact that things like that happen to them, makes you think you're in a much better situation.
Blinsighted tackled the effect of trauma. The differences in the survivor's willingness to live after going through hell, and how it can alter the direction of their life.
Notice also the subtlety of how she portrayed the stages of grieving in the life of Lena.
And the horror of how one perceives something. I cannot fcking get it to my head how someone could interpret the bible that way. Goes to show how differently the mind really works in each of us. Give just a small twisted belief to a psycho and they'll worship living it that way for the rest of their life.
and the fact that they live amongst us, and walk among us is crazy. Makes one paranoid, how well do you know a person? Even when you seem like you know them, you don't.
Had a hard time at first as I don't normally read gore stuff like this. But push past that and it's an incredible ride.
I really admire Sara's resilience. She's such a strong FMC. The fact that she's a pediatrician who has a coroner side job just screams badass. I also love the tension in her relationship with Jeff. Battling personal and interpersonal issues while going on and saving people's lives is not an easy task. It's not so hard to relate their lives to ours. And the fact that things like that happen to them, makes you think you're in a much better situation.
Blinsighted tackled the effect of trauma. The differences in the survivor's willingness to live after going through hell, and how it can alter the direction of their life.
Notice also the subtlety of how she portrayed the stages of grieving in the life of Lena.
And the horror of how one perceives something. I cannot fcking get it to my head how someone could interpret the bible that way. Goes to show how differently the mind really works in each of us. Give just a small twisted belief to a psycho and they'll worship living it that way for the rest of their life.
and the fact that they live amongst us, and walk among us is crazy. Makes one paranoid, how well do you know a person? Even when you seem like you know them, you don't.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Excrement, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Stalking, and Gaslighting
holographicguava's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Violence
kryskross's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Murder
Moderate: Violence
melaneyp's review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail