Reviews tagging Grief

True Crime Story, by Joseph Knox

7 reviews

lesemaresi's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Loved it. Loved the concept of the book and how it was written/ how the author incorporated himself into the book. Felt like a true crime documentary. I was an Easy and fast read. I couldn’t stop ready because there were So many turns of event but that also made it  a bit exhausting/confusing and hard to keep up with everything.

Spoiler

Unsure about the conclusion/ending… and how reliable the author really is

Spoiler

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Sexual content, Mental illness, Infidelity, Grief, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Drug use, Drug abuse, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Abandonment, and Violence

sarahmae531's review

dark emotional 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

5.0

I couldn’t put this book down! Between conflicting recounts and juicy teenage drama, I kept coming back for more.
The ending was set up perfectly. I was so sure I knew what was going to happen because it all seemed so obvious, but then I was proven SO wrong. The true ending was also well explained and you weren’t left wondering “how does that all add up??”
The book also did an amazing job of not breaking the fourth wall. Editor, publisher, and author notes included in the book are all fiction. There is a character in the book that’s shares the name and title of a debut novel as the author. Emails, photos, and even a Facebook post are included. It was very impressive. 

I will say, check content warnings before reading, this has almost every traumatizing thing you can think of. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Death, Violence, Self harm, Stalking, Kidnapping, Murder, Mental illness, Infidelity, Grief, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Blood

Moderate: Pregnancy, Cancer, Terminal illness, Trafficking, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment

rachelizx's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Kidnapping, Drug use, Addiction, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Self harm, Murder, Death, Stalking, Physical abuse, and Grief

glens's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

2.75

True Crime Story was about a university student Zoe Nolan going missing from a student party, never to be seen again.

Very cleverly written novel, with Joseph Knox being the ‘listening ear’ for Evelyn Mitchell, who started writing the book before he took over completing it in her absence. Knox being a real writer, inserted into a fictional crime – a blend of true crime-styled writing and fiction. This was my first time reading his writing, but I may try his Aiden Waits series.

The interviews with the family/friends/incidental witnesses that Evelyn complied, with them contradicting each other many of them challenging the truth to create a cover-up.

There were no likeable characters in the story; even Zoe, the missing person, had a secret persona that was less than the innocent that friends and family believed her to be.

It was slow going from the start, and it was nearly a DNF for me at some points, but I did return to it time and again to find out how it ended. It was well written enough that I wanted to know what happened to Zoe; it was just too long.

I would like to thank #NetGalley and Random House Transworld for the opportunity of reading this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating 2.75 / 5.0
This book was due for release on June 17, 2021

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Racial slurs, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, and Kidnapping

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/injury detail

madimairee's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Grief, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Cursing

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Murder, and Suicide attempt

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