Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

The Change by Kirsten Miller

6 reviews

cazastrophe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Child death, Drug abuse, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Violence, Abandonment, Cultural appropriation, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexual content, Vomit, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Rape, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

liblady0308's review against another edition

dark reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

Loved this book - I’m surging with primal energy, raw power and rage. The trio and how the story unfolded kept me eager to know what happens next. I’d love a continuation of these characters. My only complaint was that

all the bad-person deaths were fairly satisfying, but the one “orchestrator” one was super anticlimactic for me. Like really, Jyo just lights a few things on fire? All that power they showed she had the potential for and she didn’t really use it? And Harriet just watched? Boo. I wanted something more gruesome and symbolic, like the other deaths.

. But overall I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

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

Minor: Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Stalking

caitbrat's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Adult/minor relationship, and Trafficking

Moderate: Death, Suicide, and Stalking

ellenwilberg's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Violence, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Trafficking, Vomit, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Classism, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual assault, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Blood, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Stalking, Addiction, Car accident, and Cursing

lizsurber's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I looooved this book!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Violence

libertyreads789's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

3.25

Before I get into the review, I want to say a quick thank you to NetGalley and the publishers over at William Morrow & Company for letting me access this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Change is an Adult Fantasy/Mystery/Thriller about a group of women in Mattauk who have discovered magical abilities as a part of their midlife crisis. Those abilities end up putting them on a collision course with the evil that lives in their wealthy beach town. I’ve seen this pitched as Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick. The Change is out on May 3rd and is available for pre-order now.

There was so much in this story to love and, yet, it fell short for me. I love this beachfront town and all of the wealthy (and not so wealthy) people who live and work there. At first this story really gave me Revenge vibes which I loved and wanted more of. But the story focuses less on the rich people in town and more on the lives of the people who also live and work in this town and have to make it work. There is an ensemble cast of characters who all have their parts to play in this story. My favorite character is probably Jo because she seems the most well rounded character in the story. I feel like I know her a lot better than I know other characters. I love the image of strong women wanting to take back their town after disaster strikes and wanting to prove that women belong here just as much as the men do.

But where this powerful feminist message got lost for me was that it was constantly putting the men down in the first half of the novel. As we learned in the 2010s, that’s not how actual feminism works. Feminist ideology is not about hating men. I also didn’t love the messaging that came across as the women discovered this horrific event. It was seen as: of course this happened. Of course a woman was sexually assaulted and murdered. They’re a woman in a world of men. It was gross and it severely dialed down the horror of seeing what happened to this character. Also, I didn’t appreciate that most of the villains in this story were villains who might one day give a speech outlining all their evil plans while twirling their mustache. Their actions alone would have made me hate them. I don’t then need the author to add another level of evil behavior to make sure I know who’s the bad guy.

The things I enjoyed and really wanted more of were the magic elements and the women pulling together to take care of business. I loved that this was a magical realism story while also having a mystery/thriller element. I love the way the genres were mashed together. But I just found this a little heavy handed.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Stalking, Sexual violence, Murder, Gaslighting, Rape, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Eating disorder, Death, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, and Addiction