madmantha's review
- 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
4.75
Thrilling, anxiety-inducing, emotional and yet hilarious at the same time.
Can’t wait to suggest this read to others, I loaned it from the library but will definitely be purchasing my own copy. This is something that deserves to be remembered and celebrated for years to come.
Graphic: Confinement, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, and Torture
Moderate: Abandonment, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma
Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Homophobia, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Vomit, Alcohol, Addiction, Hate crime, Outing, Racial slurs, and Slavery
ashleigh_sorbet's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Gun violence
fayelle's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
So basically, EXCELLENT.
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Alcoholism
Minor: Cursing and Sexual content
elzibub's review
- 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
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence, Racism, and Grief
tofugoddess's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did, but unfortunately I couldn't get past some weird writing choices.
First, the villains in this book are comically flat. They're just pure evil, with no ulterior motives beyond being racist and wanting money. I'm not saying people like this can't exist in real life, but such one-dimensional characters get boring very quickly. Also, every scene with them has them explicitly explaining their evil plan to each other while stating facts that everyone present should already be aware of ("we hold all the power, the police and media are on our side!"). It felt like a parody of itself.
Second, the reveal of the conspiracy at the end was incredibly unrealistic. A supernatural explanation would have made more sense than what was decided on. Structural racism and gentrification are real problems to be solved, but the roots of the issues are complicated and multifaceted. They're not the result of some evil cabal meeting regularly and asking how they can do a racism today while also leaving an easily stumbled-upon paper trail. It kind of felt like what a conservative thinks a liberal believes about the world.
Finally, some of the descriptive language was just plain weird. At one point someone's laugh is described as sounding like jicama going over a grater?? I'm not sure what the author was going for there.
I like the idea of a thriller based on gentrification and still think the idea has a lot of promise if done differently, but I just couldn't get past my criticism long enough to fully enjoy the book. Three stars.
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Slavery
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Police brutality, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Sexual content
unphilosophize's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I enjoyed reading it but it didn’t grip me
Really liked the social commentary
Can tell that Cole write a lot of romance
Ending was a bit unsatisfying
Good red herrings
Graphic: Murder, Addiction, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Police brutality, and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Forced institutionalization
spellboundchapters's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I really liked Sydney's character (Theo was alright too - not a fan of the romance though but I didn't mind it), and the first 2/3 of the book overall got me really engaged (although there were some parts I found were a bit too slow paced). There were some really good twists and the atmosphere was very creepy and got my heart racing quite a few times.
But I found the pacing weird : one moment it's super slow, then something creepy is going on and then it's back to being slow and sometimes it's like that scary situation never happened ? And the ending was way over the top for me and felt too easy.
Spoiler
You wanna make me believe a facility owned by a multi-million company doesn't have any security guarding it and that everyone can just come in by a secret door?This one is a personal preference but I just don't like when characters are being made unreliable with substance abuse - imo Sydney's paranoia/anxiety was already enough to make her unreliable.
And lastly, I would've liked for the epilogue to be another chapter, and have an epilogue set a few months later to see what happened to the neighbourhood. There were just too many plot holes and unanswered questions. They're all quite spoiler-y so I'm gonna hide them, except for this one : why is no one on social media?? The protagonists are in their 20s/early 30s and yet none of them uses social media to alert about the shady stuff happening and people disappearing? I don't buy it.
Spoiler
What was that whole bed bugs story line about? Were they real or was it just Sydney's anxiety/lack of sleep making her have hallucinations? Who was on the phone when Sydney called her mum/writing on the shared doc to Theo? Where is Sydney's mum's body? Who took it? How did they hack Sydney's phone during the Uber ride? Was Theo drugged the night Mr. Perkins disappeared and why? Who killed Drea and how? What happens to the kidnapped people at the end? Do they just go back to regular life? Do all the white people move out from the neighbourhood after the fire? Is Sydney keeping her house? How does she get away with everything?Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Racism, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Murder, Alcoholism, and Emotional abuse
gm_vak's review
- 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
1.5
Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Stalking, Terminal illness, and Torture
sarah984's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Physical abuse
Minor: Animal cruelty, Dementia, Genocide, Slavery, Stalking, and Vomit
sucreslibrary's review
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Death of parent, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, and Sexual content
Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship