Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Synkän metsän siimeksessä by Ruth Ware

23 reviews

crabcake28's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I knew Clare was a bitch from the very beginning.

Predictable but still enjoyable. I personally didn't like any of the characters including the lead which made it a little less enjoyable but the plot was interesting enough to keep me invested. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t really like the ambiguous ending. (Surprising because I usually like ambiguous endings) It made the ending feel almost rushed and unfinished. Still enjoyable altogether but far from Ruth Ware’s best. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Medical trauma, and Abortion

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Outing

Not exactly deadnaming but the main character is repeated called the wrong name (Leonora is her name, called Lee many times even after being corrected and told she doesn’t like that name), Mentions of PTSD

abernathy_33's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide, Abortion, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Drug use and Pregnancy

larareads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicide, Abortion, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Car accident, Pregnancy, and Outing

sophieamreacher's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

Tense, atmospheric, emotional. Loved the back and forth. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

sierrabowers's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I liked this book and have enjoyed most of Ruth Ware’s books before. I thought the ending was a little predictable which is why I rated it a four. But overall I liked the story and it was something new that I had not read before. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

This is a very compelling locked-room murder mystery. I usually know whodunnit long before the end but this one kept me guessing right up to the reveal. I had trouble putting this one down. It’s not the heart-racing type of thriller story, but it definitely still gives you the creeps. The chapters were mostly short, the writing is decidedly British, and the plot was incredibly believable. I look forward to reading more of Ware’s work! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sh543's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

bessadams's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Car accident, Abortion, Pregnancy, Outing, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit and Death of parent

kt2e56's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

This is the second book I read from this author and I have some of the same problems with this that I had with The It Girl.

Again, Ware is good at setting up a plot but she gets so wrapped up in making sure there are twists and turns that her details don’t always pan out and her characters don’t seem believable or worse, she makes up new traits or details that she mushes in last minute to fill in the holes but make zero sense with the characters we’re trying to get to know and invest ourselves in.

Speaking of the characters, all of them (sans Tom) are AWFUL. I really stopped caring about what happened to any of them because they were all just the worst.

Her writing of Flo also felt mean spirited and fatphobic. Like we get it. She’s wearing clothes that would only look good on apparent waif goddess Clare. You don’t need to keep talking about Flo’s “rolls” or “excess skin.”

Nora as a POV character was frustrating because she really wasn’t sympathetic. Yes,

getting pregnant and having an abortion and being dumped all at once as a teenager but must suck but the author (I guess in an attempt to seem more progressive on her handling of abortion which I can’t fault her for, it IS a healthy attitude) kept insisting to us that the pregnancy and abortion weren’t a big deal, she was happy with her choice and had zero regrets about it so then why still fixate on a stupid teenage boy who did a stupid and cruel thing that teenage boys frequently do? For TEN years!? Like I could understand that level of trauma over a breakup of James was abusive but up until she believed he dumped her…he was fine? Annoying and a try hard. But fine. Again…just a typical “edgy” teenage boy who seemed to at least treat others very well.

I also don’t buy for even a second that Nora was ever an actress let alone the understudy for the lead role in a play like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Whether she was up Clare’s ass as a teenager or not, there’s no way someone that shy and awkward and who HATED attention would have even auditioned. This sounds like a petty gripe but I’m pointing it out because it seems like the author liked the idea of Nora and James falling in love while starring in the school play together even if it made ZERO sense for the characters. This is far from the only instance of this but it’s a noticeable one. That’s a problem to me. An author should have a better grasp on characterization.

Another example is that Nora is supposedly a successful crime novelist. Okay, fine. But this is only briefly mentioned once at the beginning of the book (and again if she was so successful, you’d think the other characters would have heard of her or her books), she shows ZERO signs of being able to solve any kind of mystery or be good at reading people (or having really any other kind of skill that you think would make for a successful mystery author) until suddenly at the very end when the explanation for everything is shoe-horned in and the killer is revealed.

The “how” and “why” of the murder at the center of all of this also feel a bit messy. There’s some gaping plot holes in how the killer was able to pull everything off and the reasoning behind it just also feels weirdly childish and doesn’t line up with the character we met (despite the author insisting on it by having characters go “Ah, yes! Of COURSE!” again and again at each reveal). 

I know it sounds like I hated this book. I really didn’t. It was entertaining and a breeze to get through. I just am disappointed when I see an author with such potential sort of flounder a bit. I’d say this is a good Beach read or cozy rainy weekend read but I don’t think this book was memorable enough or good enough for me to ever really think of again once I’m done posting this review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Murder

Moderate: Gore, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Fatphobia, Abortion, and Pregnancy

boba_nbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I quite enjoyed this book! It kept me on my toes, and the twist paid off well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide, Abortion, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Pregnancy