Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole

22 reviews

voicenextdoor's review

dark tense medium-paced

• 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Suicide, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Police brutality

pamscafati's review

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Minor: Suicide

on_a_journey's review

adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

 

I enjoyed listening/ reading the book. I liked both perspectives gentrification from Sydney a native and Theo a gentrifier and I liked how they came together to review the history of the neighborhood. The author touched on a lot of other different subjects like Karens, white saviors, experimentation, etc.  The only thing I wasn’t crazy about was how everything was compressed at the end. It was interesting and entertaining but there was a lot going on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Grief, Suicide, and Forced institutionalization

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Racism, Police brutality, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Infidelity, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Drug use, and Hate crime

Minor: Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Suicide, Vomit, Confinement, Dementia, Deportation, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Medical content, Racial slurs, and Sexual content

rorikae's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.25

'When No One Is Watching' by Alyssa Cole is a frightening thriller about gentrification where the dread and fear creep slowly through the book. Cole does an excellent job of replicating the way that gentrification moves slowly and then all at once in the plot of this novel. Sydney notices that things are wrong but the full extent of what is happening isn't apparent until the latter half of the story. Truly terrifying, this book has so many scenes and situations that are a mix of horrifying and frustrating but in a truly effective way. I hope that Cole will write more thrillers in the future because she has a real talent for creating a sense of creeping dread. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Classism, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Police brutality and Suicide

jojo_'s review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Violence, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Medical content

Minor: Genocide, Suicide, Alcohol, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Infidelity, and Slavery

mandi_lea's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Forced institutionalization, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Suicide, Death, Kidnapping, Confinement, Medical trauma, and Torture

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Infidelity, and Panic attacks/disorders

halebugs's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Murder, Gun violence, Police brutality, Hate crime, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicide, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

onceandfuturereaders's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

This book is fantastic. I started it as an audiobook and had to switch over to reading a digital version because I had to finish it faster so I could know what was going to happen. I was getting too freaked out and anxious to finish listening, but the narrators were phenomenal. 

I don’t want to give anything away because Cole did such a good job of making me question absolutely everything about this book in the best way possible. Overall, it had me hooked from the start and there were times that I legitimately gasped out loud or wondered if everything was truly happening, as Sydney and Theo both read like somewhat unreliable narrators. The book unfolded in such a great way and I would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a good thriller. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Racism

the_vegan_bookworm's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

This thriller was clever, well thought-out and clearly well researched. I found myself learning about the links between racism and gentrification, which was a cool thing to experience during a thriller.

Though it feels obvious throughout where the book is going, I still found myself anxiously following along to see where the story would go and what the ultimate result of the plot would be. The things that are revealed about all the characters, sometimes even just briefly, add so many additional layers to the storyline.

Spoiler

At first, I didn't like the ending and thought it was rushed and too positive after encountering such an all-powerful villain. But after some reflection, I like what it says about resilience of Black communities and about community care defeating even the most powerful structured oppression. "Too positive" or not, I feel like those are messages I want to see in the world and it makes me happy to see them reflected in this book.

My only actual complaint is that some elements of the story are never really resolved and just sort of forgotten in the end, like Sydney's fear of bed bugs and why Drea was working with the enemy (or even how long she was or what the story was there).

Fans of Get Out or The Other Black Girl would definitely like this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Murder, Violence, Death, Torture, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, and Blood

Minor: Suicide