Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - پشت درهای بسته

alexa, play "no body, no crime" by taylor swift featuring haim. (just kidding. i would do anything to bring up taylor swift.)

this started out well and intriguing, then slowly and painfully became dullsville. we're missing a few chapters here, hello?

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melaniesmolter's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

4.0

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saltwaterheart's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Warning! The first thing you should know, is

a puppy is killed in this book - I want you to know that because I know a few people who won’t even read a book that has a dog murdered in it. So if that’s you, this book may not be for you. The puppy is starved to death. So, not gory, just sad and awful. We also don’t watch it happen, we just know the dog is left and we find her a couple weeks later and bury her.

Now, onto my review.

I struggled to get through this book. It easily drew me in and kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was so sadistic, I contemplated giving up on it. This book is not for the weak of heart. It took me a week to read, where a book this length that I’m super into, would only take me 2 days. I have to say though, it was fantastic at getting me to feel the way the author intended for the reader to feel. This man was pure evil and I couldn’t count the amount of times I felt sick to my stomach. My first night reading it, I had to stop after page 88 when

Jack alluded to Molly the puppy starving to death, before we even confirmed that it did happen and

I had nightmares that night. I didn’t read it again for two days. But I am extremely glad I stuck it out. It WAS extremely good but I could never read it again. One thing that annoyed me, is that I kept getting aggravated that

Grace wouldn’t let Jack put Millie in an asylum. Sure, they’re bad. But I can’t imagine they’re worse or equivalent to what Jack had planned if Grace truly had given up hope of ever saving Millie. An asylum HAD to be the better alternative than “living” with Jack? I don’t know.

All I can say is, if you’ve read this far, push through.

That ending is incredible. Esther is amazing.

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