Reviews with content warning for Incest - Do What Godmother Says

I loved this book. And while I felt like at times it was drawn out (especially at the end), this was still an amazing thriller novel. It kept me guessing all the way until the end about who killed godmother, and trust there wasn't a shortage of people who should've murdered her, which is why the ending really disappointed me. Also, the murderers and their relationship was weird and I honestly would've liked the book even more if they just left the mystery of who did it out in the open. Honestly my biggest gripe about the novel was that last chapter. Would've been so much happier if I just skipped that one.

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avm917's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

First the cons:

Unironic use of “favs” not faves, not favorites. Not my cup of tea linguistically.
A very uncharitable depiction of mental illness. Untreated mental illnesses can obviously be debilitating but this is so gratuitous and it does feel like it’s used as an excuse for a lot of questionable choices Shanice makes. The generational trauma and mental illness can play into the story (and obviously make Shanice second guess her reality) but something about the way her mental illness is portrayed really doesn’t sit quite right with me.
I think I saw just about every twist coming except two. Obviously you also feel vindicated when that happens, and surprises without breadcrumbs and foreshadowing are often ridiculous, but I wanted to be a little more surprised.
Because of said gratuitous use of “I’m mentally ill!”, a lot of Shanice’s choices and how on earth she’s made it this far in life baffled me.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book. The tension was consistent and the shifts between perspectives/timelines made sense in the context of the story as a whole, rather than shifting for the sake of shifting. I could’ve easily devoured this book in a day or two. The writing was compelling and definitely made it easy to read quickly. This was a good choice to reintroduce me to thrillers in my adult reading renaissance.

I read this book through a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

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kaelizaco's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.25

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