Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

True Crime Story, by Joseph Knox

11 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

fairylightreads's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Spoiler

As someone whose halls flat walls were made of one long crawlspace I'm very glad I didn't read it until 6 years after I moved out of halls

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Stalking, Sexual violence, and Murder

Moderate: Self harm and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Terminal illness, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Eating disorder, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

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

rodders's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A genuinely beautiful book. I couldn't put it down, reading 100+ pages a day (over double what I'd normally do). The mystery sucks you in but then the characters and their growth keep you hooked. Could not recommend this more highly

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Suicide, Stalking, and Sexual assault

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

camona's review

dark mysterious 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

4.5

I couldn't put this book down. It felt so real, with pictures, social media, emails, etc. It is, of course, totally fiction, but the suspense of the storyline definitely kept me hanging on. Story is told from many different (competing) perspectives in the form of answers to interview questions. Really well-done, though needs warnings about language and some sexual content, as well as references to abduction and suicide.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, and Stalking

amichreads's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Self harm, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

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

travelseatsreads's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

5.0

First things first, after the initial few minutes of the book you're going to want to goggle it! Don't do it, just go with it and enjoy this ingenious masterpiece.

I don't want to say too much as a huge amount of the enjoyment of True Crime Story is trying to figure out what's actually going on. This need to know more persists from the first few lines to the final full stop. 

Cleverly pieced together with interviews, emails and statements it kept my mind boggling right until the end. I listened to the audio version and it was hugely atmospheric. The interviews and statements even have that white noise and background interference you'd expect from tape recordings. I know some listeners found this irritating but it definitely added to the drama for me. I can also imagine this would work perfectly in text form and would love to dive into the snippets of emails and police statements so might even buy this for my shelf. 

Murderinos, true crime fans and podcast fanatics, you will devour this  and crime fiction fans equally will get trapped in it's twisty tangled web.

Read it or listen to it but you need to add it to your TBR pile now. I'm immediately adding Knox's other books to mine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, Violence, Trafficking, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Mental illness, Drug abuse, and Drug use