Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

14 reviews

sadie_hawkins's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Started out and went on great but the ending was truly not it. Felt like an afterthought, no originality, not suprising. I really wasn't satisfied with it. Therefore not a mystery but a psychological thriller, and even though it was about such a sad thing, I really found it captivating. I found the writing quality high enough until the part she was found. I am still happy I read it, would recommend, just don't expect a good ending lol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Murder

emilynied's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This book dove right in within the first fifty pages and at times was quite challenging to get through. It's descriptive, disturbing and challenging as a reader. I initially picked up this book thinking it would be about a character post-abduction, re-entering the world and the psychological effects of a year spent kidnapped. The book, however, spent most of its first half describing the details of Annie's year kept in the mountains, probing into her innermost thoughts, emotions and fears. The book is interesting in that it tells Annie's story through meetings with her therapist, but we as the reader don't ever meet this person, as the story is told in purely first person. She talks to the reader as if we are the therapist, which makes for some interesting storytelling and cliffhangers between "sessions," broken up into chapters. I think I would have liked to see some sort of therapist "character," but the pacing felt super fast to me and kept me so intrigued - I read this in like a day. 

The second half was what really surprised me. Rather than seeing Annie work through her trauma and experiences, the plot really focuses on the mystery surrounding the abduction and the web of potential connections and crimes that the reader (or just me?) never even suspected. I really liked the mystery here, but would have liked to see more of Annie's character arc as that felt pretty unresolved to me - the entire ending felt a little stilted and sudden after the last big bombshell dropped.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Pregnancy

killmoore_'s review against another edition

dark 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

This is one of the most gut wrenching books I have ever read. Just about every twist and turn absolutely wrecked me, and my heart broke for Annie with every chapter. 

I'd give anything to read it for the first time again, ngl. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

zumpers's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Car accident, and Death of parent

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.25

To say I liked/enjoyed this book feels wrong because this book was very heavy. Let's just say this is the first ever thriller where I was shedding tears. It did take me some time to get into (about 60 pages, but after that, I was hooked) because of how the story was formatted. So, just to prepare you the story is told through therapy sessions where only the main character speaks, and in these sessions, she starts off talking about a detail/event that happened to her in the present then goes into what happened to her then it ends off with her in the present again (that's how each chapter starts and ends). The first 50-60% of this book is her (Annie) recounting what happened to her and how she escapes. And my gosh it's so heartbreaking to read. 

Something I want to point out is that I personally like how the author presented Annie's personality through how she acts and speaks because you really get a feel into the type of person she is and how this experience has shaped who she's become. I think the author did a good job in presenting what an experience like this can take from someone and something as tragic as this creates deep scars into someone; scars that may never go away. 

The rest of the novel explores the present-day investigation into who did this to her and why. Now I personally feel very indifferent towards the twist. I understood the twist, however, I understand why many people feel like it was a cop-out and that it lacked luster. Especially because I don't think we got enough closure especially pertaining to certain characters like Luke (I really felt for him; he was so kind). 

I did not like Christina and I'm glad Annie finally let her go. I can't believe she even forgave her the first time. It still leaves a bad taste in my mouth that she and Luke slept together while Annie was out being tortured by "The Freak".

  Overall, if you do think about reading this I really do suggest checking those trigger warnings. I've never cried in a thriller until I read this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Infidelity, Sexual content, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Vomit, and Car accident

xtritagonist's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Ableism

april0727's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Pregnancy

cateyeschloe's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

I really enjoyed this book, despite it being a thematically difficult read.

The story opens on a normal day with our main character, and she honestly wasn’t super likeable to me at the start (my opinion of which did improve as much as it could as the book progressed). However, the story pretty much immediately jumps into her kidnapping, and it gets very intense very fast. 

I cannot stress enough how pervasive and horrifying the misogyny is in this book! It is integral to the plot, but parts are really difficult to stomach. 

Overall, this was a really interesting story, and I enjoyed the perspective the author used to present it. The twists were engaging and interesting with an ending that satisfied me nicely! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fatphobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence

Rape is very pervasive in this book, as well as the after effects of it.

The abuse is very intense and focuses heavily on psychological manipulation, along with physical abuse.

Child abuse and child death is a big, extremely tragic and upsetting part of this book, involving a weeks old infant.

Forced pregnancy happens due to kidnapping, confinement, and continuous rape.

A lot of examples of PTSD, panic attacks, anxiety, paranoia, etc. are present throughout.

Someone shoots a duck in the head. A deer is killed off scene and then on page is gutted. A scene is described of someone hitting a cat with a car.

juliaaa02's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

hapikohw's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

 Gave it a 4 star review with a 5 star audio performance by the narrator. Was fast-paced, emotional and reminded me of a good version of a Lifetime movie. At the beginning, I was concerned with how I was going to take the protagonist, but by the end all I wanted to do was be there for her and never leave the story and her side. It also had a bittersweet ending, one of hurt, but also new beginnings and a journey for healing. The only thing is I don't think the retelling through therapy sessions did anything for this story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail