Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

20 reviews

j_emerson18's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

What a great book to start the year. It was inspirational and well written.  I love the plot twists near the end. The writing style was super intriguing. I loved the story with the four unlikely friends in the midst of a murder. **spoiler warning**
I am honestly a little upset by the lack of depth or detail about the secondary story between two writers in which one is a serial killer. I would have loved more information about the two of them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Stalking, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content and Grief

allisonplus's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Drug abuse, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

aseel_reads's review against another edition

mysterious medium-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

1.5

this had the potential, if they made it author living her life/writing her novel, the novel itself, and then leo advising her about the novel in real life but instead we just get the novel itself (which was odd, hated the characters, the ending was weird, don't understand it) and leo advising on it and apparently the blurb just tells us what is going to happen??? no good 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

arthur_ant18's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Incest, Rape, and Sexual content

jupiter_01's review against another edition

funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I would've read this in one day if I could, but I also didn't want it to be over! The novel features a group of oddball people who become friends, all while keeping secrets from each other. It continuously kept me guessing, and in the end I wasn't right!

I enjoyed the two narrative structure. I laughed and smiled and genuinely thought some moments between the couples were cute, which made it even more suspenseful to know someone/s was hiding the truth.

The only thing that didn't quite work for me was the ending. It was abrupt and I was left unsure how to feel.

I read one analysis that Leo is ultimately a mirror of his real life counterpart, which I can accept and like, but even so, it felt ill-paced.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Racism, and Sexual content

caseythereader's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape and Torture

Minor: Racism and Sexual content

chaotically_katie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.75

It had so much potential, and it’s such an interesting style of writing. But the lack of focus on the murder victim, and the main plot point of the scream, really disappointed me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

pollyhall's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, and Colonisation

the_rainydayreader's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Rape and Sexual content

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.25

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

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This book kicked off in a really compelling way, but sadly, that's all it really had going for it. The plots crawled along at barely a smolder that never managed to build themselves into a burn, slow or otherwise. You may have noticed that I said "plots". It's not a typo; this story has a dual plot situation going on that, while interesting in theory, was just not executed very well, in my opinion.

There was a line in this story, around the point when I was starting to wonder if anything was going to happen in this book, that got me thinking I might have been duped by picking it up.

"We dress our stories up with murders, and discussions about morality and society, but really we just care about relationships."

It kind of speaks for itself. Basically, this book promises you a murder and mystery, but doesn't really deliver on either of those things in a satisfying way because it's more focused on the developing romance between characters.

As someone who doesn't enjoy reading romance, I didn't like being tricked into reading a romance disguised as a murder mystery. I would have been able to tolerate it if it wasn't at the expense of the rest of the plot, but it definitely was. The mystery didn't really feel fleshed out, and the solution was easy to guess, even early on in the book.
To make matters worse, for a book about relationships, the characters were okay at best. They all felt very cookie-cutter to me, and I found it hard to connect with any of them.

If you're looking for a romance novel with some peripheral mystery/murder, this might be for you. However, if you're looking for a who-dun-it that'll leave you guessing until the end, I don't think you'll find this book very satisfying.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, and Blood