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harthara13's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Rape and Violence
Minor: Murder
megelizabeth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
It's also extremely well-written and tightly-plotted, with a jaw-dropping ending that will continue to haunt me. There's lots of great commentary on many issues, with it never feeling like there are too many topics raised and not enough attention given to each. It took me a while to warm to our protagonist, Zara, but I did come to appreciate her growth, and I absolutely adored her friendship with Safran and, for me, this friendship also plays a really important role thematically in the story.
The main thing I didn't love about this book is more of a me problem than a book problem, as I think it's fairly typical of legal/courtroom thrillers and is one of the reasons I don't read too many of them; it's that there's a big break in time between the beginning of the book and the court scenes, and it felt, to me, as if there was undoubtedly lots we were missing out on. That was probably entirely intentional, and as I've already said, typical of the genre, but it's just something that doesn't tend to work too well for me personally. The only other thing I didn't like and which threw me out of the story a bit was that there's a really odd conversation justifying physical abuse of children, which was so out-of-keeping with the book as a whole which had some really great conversations around abuse, trauma, and difficult familial relationships; it just didn't make sense to me at all why this throwaway conversation should be included.
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death of parent, and Classism
clairebonney's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Drug use, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, and Murder
Animal cruelty/animal death relates to a swan in chapter 3. The dog in the novel remains unharmed.chkrato's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Rape, and Murder
onceandfuturereads's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Murder
katrinarose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Homophobia
mikki_9'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? No
5.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent