Reviews tagging 'Rape'

True Crime Story by Joseph Knox

3 reviews

sleepysadpoet's review

dark slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Rape and Racism

Not worth it. Transphobic.

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, and Infidelity

Minor: Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

honeyreads1066's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book had me googling whether it, not this was a true story. 

This book follows the disappearance of a Manchester University student Zoe and the events after and surrounding this. The key players in this disappearance are revealed at the beginning, including her twin sister Kimberly. Told through a series of interviews that are cut together after the fact, you get a picture of Zoe's life and the complicated people surrounding her. 

The strongest part of this book was probably the style, it was the thing that drew me to it in the first place. The book is told through a series of interviews that are cut together as well as emails between the author and the original author. The style was unique and did keep things interesting. 

Despite this, I did have an issue with the pacing, while there were massive reveals and things that didn't make sense, I felt like at times these large things were brushed to the side in favour of snide comments other none interesting information. It made me want to put the book down quite a few times but I stuck through to see how it would end. 

The characters themselves started off feeling a little bit like caricatures, there were also a few things said at the beginning regarding race that was a bit iffy and didn't come up later. It did make me want to stop. 

You understand at the beginning that everyone has their personal version of events and thus everyone seems to be an unreliable narrator which I think was a massive pro for the story. 

The ending left a lot of questions which would be fair if it were a true story but since this is fiction it made me pretty frustrated. There are a few elements that seem to have been completely dropped but then why bring these things up if they're going to be dropped. 

Overall, despite what it may seem at times I was drawn into the story. I wasn't expecting the ending but I'm unsure about how I feel about it at the current time. This was solid especially love the style it was written in. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Suicide, Rape, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Trafficking