Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - You'd Look Better as a Ghost

Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

You'd Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace

23 reviews

haileyhardcover's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

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

5.0

Claire sees people as ghosts before they die. That’s how she knows it’s time for her to kill them. Claire has been getting away with murder (literally) for years, but now, someone knows her secret…

I absolutely loved every page of this book. Never has a serial killer been funnier! Claire quickly became one of my favorite book characters of all time. I don’t know that you’re supposed to love a serial-killing sociopath, but in Claire’s defense, they were bad people! …mostly 👀

I had no idea how this book was going to end! Wallace did a fantastic job of not revealing too much too early so you didn’t figure it all out before Claire did and the book was gripping the whole way through.

If you love a thriller and deadpan British humor, this is the book for you!

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paladinpals's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

finished this one and im going to be real, i dont know if i even liked it. i dont know what i have experienced but quite frankly. its bizarre but not necessarily in a bad way? but more of in a. like. have you ever seen someone dig themselves into a hole and keep digging except forever until you can no longer see them and there is no way back? kind of like reading a train crash. the writing was fine its the story that has me feeling ways i cannot put into words and i dont think therapy would help?

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rlazarf3's review against another edition

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dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Few chapters felt slow paced at 3/4 mark. Enjoyed the plot twist. Ending was satisfying.

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taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.25

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beate251's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Claire is a serial killer and has been for a long time. There is deep seated childhood trauma through a mean, neglectful mother and an overindulgent father.

When her beloved Dad dies, she finds herself in a bereavement group with a handful of weird characters bemoaning the loss of a loved one. There are Jemma, Christiana, Evelyn, Welshman and Weird Little Man because Claire doesn't bother learning the names of people she isn't really interested in.

Her life begins to unravel when she kills Lucas, a man who overlooked her for an art prize or something and then Jemma from her bereavement group visits her at home and tells her that she and him were blackmailing people and she saw him disappear into her house and never come out.

The plot is way too complicated for me to detail here but it involves murders, planned murders, Jemma's sister Helen and regular visits to a posh care home.

Claire's acerbic inner commentary is hilarious. She knows she is not like other people. She constantly refers to how ordinary people would react or what they would say. The first person POV works really well to show what a sociopath she is. The flashbacks to her childhood are illuminating and disturbing in equal measures.

The book is darkly funny but also unsettling as there is no remorse or character development for Claire. She's simply too damaged to ever be normal again so the only questions are, will she be found out and will we want her to be?

The cover reminds me a lot of Eat Slay Love by Julie Mae Cohen, whereas the title reminds me a lot of I Bet You'd Look Good in a Coffin by Katy Brent, both authors I love. I'm usually a fan of female serial killers in books but Claire is a bit too unhinged for me, killing men and women alike for the slightest transgressions.

It was nevertheless a well-written intriguing, tense read with a lot of twists and turns that made the book fun.

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sleepy_stacey's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

The final third of this book makes up for the first two. With a plot description of ‘a serial killer finds out they have a stalker’ I was expecting a much faster paced and dark thriller. Instead I found myself waiting for the moment the ‘action’ would start and the pace would pick up- but every time I thought we were there, we dropped the pace back down again. As I said, this was a lot less thriller than I was anticipating and I probably would not have finished this book if I was reading it on my own and not for book club purposes. That being said, I’m glad I read all the way through because the payoff was worth it.

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