Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

59 reviews

authorkristenelizabeth's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow. This was an experience. Listening to the audiobook was a whirlwind. I did not expect where everything was going - and that's good in my opinion. The twists and turns were done at just the right time. WARNING! This book is VERY graphic of its violent scenes. There is a lot to unpack emotionally throughout the entire novel. A small part of me was hoping for redemption and a more justice-like conclusion, but overall I'm satisfied with what transpired. It's a great book if you're into high-stakes true crime that happens in the moment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

The content in this book is HEAVY. You need to be prepared for graphic descriptions of violence and body gore. There is a lot of emotions going on as well so if you're not ready to handle a whole lot of bad things, I would suggest not reading.

el1books's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

0.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Stalking

Minor: Car accident

littledottie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

becinneverland's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

kristihiggi's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Police brutality

Minor: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury

mykieangelno's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

incredible. full of twists that will shock and disgust you. heartbreaking family drama and love

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

stayceee24's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

4.25

I get the feeling this is a book that nobody should really like. The trigger warnings are endless, and if I was rating this book on the first 40% it would be rated a lot lower, because it was very disjointed and hard to follow at first. 

Once the pace picked up, so did the quality of the story and I kept going to see what happened to Julia, to see what Paul was really capable of, and to that extent, to see what Claire was truly capable of. If I were Claire, I’d have done much worse than what she did. He deserved much, much worse than just being shot twice.

Overall though, I actually really enjoyed the story, when I probably shouldn’t.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

dmackreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The writing style of this book threw me a little because third person is hard for me to follow or enjoy sometimes but I got so sucked into this I finished it in less than 24 hours. 

I was NOT expecting the way this unraveled or how the people connected. Please check the trigger warnings because it’s fucked up. 

If you’re looking for a thriller that you could read in one sitting if you had the time because you just need to know how it’s going to end, this is it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

fi_sandison's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

lampbee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I can’t tell if i loved or hated this book. It’s very violent in its depictions, at some point it felt needless or even voyeuristic? I didn’t like that element of it especially given the whole plot of the book. The premise I feel was solid and I liked the execution it was just a lot more grim with a lot less payoff than I expected. However I liked the development and the twists not being predictable/trite.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

The description of Lydia getting

waterboarded with paul’s piss

was a bit intense to the point of me not being sure what the purpose was. Obviously to show

that Paul is evil/irredeemable and is willing to sexually abuse Claire’s sister

but it felt gratuitous. The same I feel could be said for the description of the photos

I understand that gore was required to get their heinous crimes across but the description of the mutilated and cleaved girl hanging from barn rafters while blood-soaked and fully erect men posed for a photo was a lot to take in and I wonder how much detail was required to get the point across

. Maybe I just prefer for rape culture to be referenced or described on a more nuanced level and something of this level wasn’t going to hit — but at very least there can be no debate over whether the crime was “all that bad”. I will say though, I’m probably not the only one, by the end of the book

I was hoping Paul would have to endure some of the torture he doled out. He kept Julia alive for two weeks, I would’ve liked to see him have to endure something of that caliber not a strained but quick death in a forest.

I’m very uninterested in women not stooping to their attackers level , they need to get even, idc.