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avm917's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Classism
Moderate: Drug use, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol
Minor: Vomit and Abortion
kaelizaco's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism