Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

51 reviews

mysticslibrary's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

Best thriller I've read in a while. Highly recommend!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Violence, Police brutality, Stalking, and Murder

gracescanlon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Gaslighting, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Racism

vanesst's review against another edition

dark mysterious

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Racism, Sexual violence, Blood, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kteq's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

3.5

The craft choices of the characters-as-writers added such a fun meta-layer to this mystery - and served to explain the absolute ridiculous names and choices of everyone involved.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism and Sexual assault

wogslandwriter's review

emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

To be honest, I found the book mostly boring. I only finished it because the audiobook was pretty short and I wanted to see how the real world storyline resolved. It wasn't too much of a mystery and the novel portion of the story was more of a supporting character to the narrative between Leo and Hannah than a full story on it's own.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and it's nuanced and less nuanced analyses of how a story is affected by the author and vice versa. Some parts were feather-light and I felt accomplished for seeing them and noticing the themes. Other parts were extremely heavy-handed and felt a little silly to read. 

I think having the "real world" elements be restricted entirely to correspondence was a really smart move and really pulled the book together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, Medical content, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

One of the main characters describes and incident from their past where a younger sibling dies in an accident. Another describes a childhood incident where a beating from a parent has pedophilic overtones, but there is an intervention before anything beyond physical violence occurs.

tlaynejones's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This is a cute twisty contemporary murder mystery. There is a bit of a book within a book plot which adds an extra layer of interest, and I enjoyed the idea of the book (that I’m reading) being critiqued chapter by chapter as a literary device. This is great for when you want something that will engage you and entertain you without too much effort. It’s not gory, and wasn’t particularly dark (considering it’s a murder mystery) in tone. There were a few chuckles; I figured out the murderer early on, but not how the murderer actually did the murder-y things, so the ending was still a good result. The character development and relationships aren’t very fleshed out, and one of the characters was so annoying, but I think that’s sort of the nature of this style/genre. No queer rep.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Sexual violence, Torture, and Pandemic/Epidemic

justagir1's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Gun violence, Stalking, and Gaslighting

Minor: Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

palejandro's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious 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: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Racism

bessadams's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Gun violence, and Stalking

Minor: Racism and Sexual assault

hypofocus's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was cleverly written! A story within a story is hard to pull off but it works well here! I found myself changing my predictions up until the reveal and was still surprised when it went down! I love the themes of writing and reading, this book was written for book lovers for sure! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Medical trauma, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Cursing